Unity Bank shareholders lose N468m, stakeholders rush to take investment

Just recently, shareholders of Unity Bank Plc expressed serious concerns over the challenges facing the bank, urging the board and management to urgently address them.

The shareholders made this known at the lender’s 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on the 1st of July 2021 at its headquarters in Lagos.

At the AGM of Unity bank plc, which was streamed online and monitored by our correspondent, the shareholders said they were worried that the board was yet to find a suitable investor to save the bank from crumbling.

One of them, Mrs. Adebisi Bakare, the national coordinator of the Pragmatic Shareholders Association of Nigeria (who represented over 30,000 shareholders of Unity bank) while speaking on behalf of her group lamented that the red flag raised by the bank’s auditor, KPMG, was worrisome and further asked when the board plans to fully recapitalise the bank.

According to her: “I want to talk about the external auditors’ report on key matters with respect to material uncertainty related to going concern. I want to ask what the board and management are doing to address the issues [raised] as regards a negative shareholders’ fund of N275 billion.

“I want to know when exactly the bank will be recapitalised. Are we expecting new investors before end of this year or next year?

“Furthermore, there have been issues of increasing cyber attacks and frauds in financial institutions, how has our bank been able to weather the storm to ensure safety of depositors’ funds?

“Also, what are the steps the board is taken to have three independent directors as required by CAMA 2020?”

In his response, the chairman of Unity Bank, Mr. Aminu Babaginda, said, “COVID has basically slowed down the recapitalisation process and every other thing. There were a lot of interested parties and there are still interested parties that we are still engaging with and I think that in due time, we will get there, but until we finish the negotiations, we will not bring it to light.”

Another shareholder who was at the meeting representing other shareholders who could not physically attend due to COVID-19 restrictions, Mr. Kabiru urged the bank’s management team led by Mrs. Oluwatomi Somefun, to address the negative rumours about the company, saying “we don’t want to hear anything bad about Unity Bank again.

“MD, we are tired of the negative news in the media. We don’t want to hear bad news anymore; we want to hear positive news about the bank.

“I also want to appeal to our chairman, who is a young man with energy and resources, to ensure that this bank continue to survive.

“We know what is going on all over the world and the economy and our profit, which went from N3 billion to N2 billion, and we know God willing, the bank will survive.

“For me, if I can’t say good things about this bank, I should better keep my mouth shut. To be frank, I am among the oldest shareholders. I have always been with the bank. I have been banking with the Unity Bank since when I was in secondary school and I am still with the bank up till now. The bank can check my records to confirm and that is why I don’t want this bank to collapse. I hope the challenges the bank is facing will become history soon.”