By Chinyere Aruogu
If the apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) fails to approve the result of Skye Bank Plc’s result with it on the 2016 audited account, the commercial bank would have entered into trouble.
The CBN has to look critically at the result to ensure the books were not cooked to deceive shareholders and members of the public.
That explains why on Tuesday, June 13 Skye Bank said its audited financial results for the year ended December 31, 2016, would be released soon if the anticipated CBN’s approval comes.
It did in a notification to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), where it stated that most of the challenges faced in the completion of the audit report have been cleared.
“This is to inform the NSE, our esteemed shareholders and other stakeholders of Skye Bank Plc of the reasons for the Bank’s inability to file the audited financial statement of Skye Bank Plc for the year ended 31 December 2016 within the extended time granted by the NSE.
“Please be informed that most of the challenges faced in the completion of the audit exercise have been surmounted, and as previously stated, the draft audited financial statement for the year ended 31 December 2016is currently awaiting the final approval of the bank’s primary regulator, the CBN,” the bank said in statement.
It said it was hopeful the 2016 audited report would be approved and filed at the NSE before the end of the current quarter.
Group Managing Director of Skye Bank, Tokunboh Abiru, told capital market operators that the management team and the board would work to achieve value enhancement for shareholders, customers and the public by bringing the cost-income ratio to acceptable levels, improve the risk assets quality and work towards increasing the liquidity and capital adequacy of the bank.
He described the reconstitution of the bank’s board as an intervention, adding that the lender’s fundamentals were good and strong.
Also, Skye Bank Chairman of M.K. Ahmad had said despite the CBN’s intervention, the ownership of the bank remained in the hands of the shareholders.
Skye Bank had posted a loss of N40.726 billion for the year ended December 31, 2015 following a total provision of N34.681 billion for impairment charges for the year. Although the bank ended the year with higher interest income of N127 billion in 2015, up from N107 billion in 2014, the impairment charges made the bank to record a loss of N40.726 billion compared with a profit of N18.717 billion in 2014.
While N27.53 billion impairment charges were for loans, N7.145 billion was provided for as impairment charges for other financial assets. The bank’s huge exposure to the oil gas, energy and other sectors of the economy affected its loan performance, a development that made the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to intervene in the bank last year.