Ownership Tussle Sees Chairman of Nigeria’s FBN Holdings Ousted

FBN Holdings Plc, owner of First Bank of Nigeria, on Friday received approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria to appoint Ahmad Abdullahi to the role, after Remi Babalola resigned, pressured by a “contest by some significant shareholders for control,” the regulator’s spokesman Osita Nwanisobi said by phone from the capital, Abuja.

An FBN spokeswoman wasn’t immediately reachable by phone for comment.

The Lagos-based lender has attracted investor attention in the past months after its asset quality, which was battered by a 2016 oil-induced contraction in Africa’s biggest crude producer, improved. Its non-performing loan ratio declined to 7.7% last year from 24.4% in 2016. 

First Bank’s Chairman Tunde Hassan-Odukale, past board members and billionaire Femi Otedola have been building up stakes in the company to try and take control. According to a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, Otedola, now a significant shareholder, bought 200 million shares in FBN from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8.   

Babalola had been chairman since April after the central bank removed the boards of FBN and First Bank Nigeria for appointing a new chief executive officer without regulatory approval. 

The central bank’s first ouster of a bank’s board since 2016 was aimed at protecting minority shareholders and customers, Governor Godwin Emefielesaid at the time. First Bank is considered a systemically important bank and has been supported by the regulator to help it reduce its bad loans.