The House of Representatives has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to suspend the planned sale of Polaris Bank Plc pending the conclusion of processes for an open, transparent, and competitive bid in line with best practice and procedure for divestment of this nature.
The House also mandated an ad hoc committee to review the total outlay by the Federal Government of Nigeria in Polaris Bank and account for the financial input in the bank by the Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) and the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
Adopting a motion of urgent public importance by Rep. Henry Nwawuba, the lawmakers also want to determine whether the conditions for the sale were likely to ensure a positive return on public funds thus far committed to the bank, whether as bailout funds or other investments.
Moving the motion, Nwawuba drew attention to an information circulating in the social media on the proposed sale of Polaris Bank for N40billion.
He said the process of divestment from the bank should be done transparently and does not jeopardise the core reason for the CBN intervention in the bank.
He said it was necessary to avert public outcry and untoward reaction from critical stakeholders in the economy, foreign business partners, banking community, depositors, Correspondent banks, etc. as it is also crucial to avoid the shortcomings of the previous similar exercise undertaken in the past.
According to him, Polaris Bank is borne out of the bailout of the defunct Skye bank Plc that failed due to poor corporate governance and non-performing loan for which a whooping sum of close to a trillion Naira of public fund was committed to resuscitating the bank.
