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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied planning to nationalise Unity Bank Plc, saying that the bank is still in good financial health.
The Acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, CBN, Osita Nwanisobi, said the information was “fake news” and should be discarded in its entirety.
A news report had claimed that the apex bank’s target examination of Unity Bank showed that the Tier 2 lender is in “grave financial condition”, with Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) and Non- Performing Loans (NPL) ratio that breached prudential standards.
Last month, the CBN’s Monetary Policy Committee ( MPC) at the end of its meeting noted that the banking industry is in good health.
According to the communique: “The Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) and the Liquidity Ratio (LR) both remained above their prudential limits at 15.8 and 38.9 per cent, respectively. The Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) at 5.89 per cent in April 2021, showed progressive improvement compared with 6.6 per cent in April 2020.”
The Chairman of the Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria (an umbrella body of shareholders), Boniface Okezie, said Unity Bank is still in good health.
He said, “I don’t think Unity Bank has a problem that it cannot surmount. Because if that bank would have been crippled, it would have happened years back. But that is not the situation now. As far as I am concerned, Unity Bank is still a going concern. It is still viable and it still has strength to forge ahead.”
On his part, National Coordinator Emeritus, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Sunny Nwosu, said that Unity Bank has been able to turn its fortunes around said, “This kind of rumour can create fear among depositors. Those who feel strongly that government control of such banks will not be good for corporate governance and the bank is owned by so many people and government should not try to do that because it will actually not place them in the good books of shareholders.
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