July 27, 2015/ Thisday
The board of directors of Unity Bank is making fresh moves to reposition the bank as a major institution that will contribute to the growth of the Nigerian economy following the resignation of the bank’s managing director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Henry James Semenitari last Friday.
Semenitari, who assumed office in 2013, resigned after a successful recapitalisation and re-branding exercise that evolved the bank into a profitable and customer-focused financial services company.
Sources close to the bank, who confirmed the development, said the board would replace him with “someone from within who meets all the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) requirements.”
“The board made a pre-emptive move based on the future direction of the company after a successful stint as MD by Semenitari,” one of the sources said.
It was gathered that with an average professional banking experience of 24 years each, led by Thomas Etuh as chairman) and Aminu Babangida as vice-chairman) the Unity Bank board has a combined 120 years of experience with highly talented, leadership to drive growth and continued improvement in services to customers while upholding the principle of responsible banking practices.
“Furthermore none of the banking regulatory institutions in the country, CBN, Nigerian Deposits Insurance Corporation (NDIC) or Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has raised any concern over happenings in Unity Bank.
The NDIC 2014 annual report recently released gave a clean bill of health to the bank in particular and Nigerian Banks in general,” the source added.
Already, Unity Bank board has employed the services of audit and consulting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) to improve processes and strategies in the bank’s small and medium scale enterprises (SME), agriculture and rural development sectors.
Unity Bank concluded a right issues and private placement of N39.224 billion in 2014, which was largely oversubscribed. The bank recovered from a loss of N33 billion to profit in 2013. The bank reported a net income rose 11 per cent to N8.23 billion in the half year 2015 period, despite the tight money and tough macro environment.
Lenders are struggling with a 40 percent slump in oil prices in the past year and the depreciation of the currency by the CBN.
The CBN also decided to set a unified cash reserve ratio for public- and private-sector funds at 31 percent to improve the transmission of monetary policy.
Unity Bank’s fee and commission income increased by 23 percent to N4.66 billion to offset the dip in interest income in 2015 from the earlier period.
Total assets increased by four per cent to N429.6 billion, while cash and cash equivalents stood at 23.46 billion as at June 30, 2015.
Unity Bank Plc came into existence from one of the largest mergers in Nigeria’s banking history.
The bank has developed competences in investment, corporate and retail banking, since commencing operations in January 2006 following the merger of nine financial institutions.
It is now one of the leading retail banks in Nigeria with 256 business offices and cash centres spread across the 36 states of the federation.
