By James Orji
First Bank of Nigeria, FBN Holdings has disclosed that it’s awaiting the Central Bank of Nigerian, CBN approval before the releases of its audited results for the year ended December 2021.
The Nnamdi Okonkwo-led corporation and parent company of Nigeria ‘s oldest fiancial institution, First Bank of Nigria Limited said the results will now be released before the end of the month after approval by the financial regulator.
The company disclosed this in a press release obtained by The magazine.
The statement said “FBN Holdings Plc (“FBNH” or “the Company”) wishes to notify the Nigerian Exchange Limited (‘NGX’ or ‘the Exchange’) and the investing public that the Company was unable to file and publish its Unaudited Financial Statements (Q’1 2022 UFS) for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022, by April 30, 2022, as required under the Rules of the NGX.”
“The Company’s inability to publish was due to the delays in finalizing the Audited Financial Statements (FY 2021 AFS) of the Group for the year ended December 31, 2021. The FY 2021 AFS was concluded and submitted to the Company’s primary regulator on April 29, 2022.”
“FBNH plans to publish both the FY 2021 AFS and the 01 2022 UFS on or before May 30, 2022, by which time the necessary approval would have been obtained from our primary regulator.”
The disclosure, industry watchers say, will assuage the feelings associated with the bank’s delay in releasing the 2021 audited accounts after others banks have published their reports for the year 3nding December 2021. The financial behemoth has yet to release the first quarter 2022 results.
Also, keen watchers in the financial sector informed The Source magazine that the delay may not be unconnected with the management transition in FBNH following the appointment of Okonkwo in November last year as the Group Managing Director, GMD. He effectively assumed office on January 1, 2022.
“The new management needs time to settle down to work. First Bank is the flagship of banking in the country, whatever happens there must surely have reparcussions in the industry. That’s why everything in the bank is geared towards the interests of all stakeholders in mind. We are finally happy that the ‘company has set the deadline for the release of the results for end of May,” Adegboyega Rufus, a financial expert told the magazine on Monday.
