Banking
SEC shuts offices of New Nation Finance House across Nigeria
LAGOS – The Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC, has closed down offices of New Nation Finance House in seven states of the federation, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
New Nation Finance House is one of the leading fund management companies in Nigeria.
Pamela Obioru, SEC’s Assistant Director and leader of the enforcement team, said in Lagos on Wednesday that New Nation Finance House was an illegally entity.
The closure affected the company’s offices in Lagos, Akure, Bauchi, Birnin Kebbi, Calabar, Kano and Makurdi.
The offices are to stop operations by February 7.
Ms. Obioru said that 14 of the company’s officials had also been arrested by the police. She said the action was part of SEC’s statutory responsibilities of regulating the capital market and protecting investors.
The official said that the enforcement exercise was necessary to protect innocent investors from falling into wrong investment schemes.
“It is one of the routine exercises of the commission to clamp down on illegal investment operators in the country,” she stated.
Ms. Obioru said that Section 153 of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) prescribed that operators of such firms must obtain licence and file returns to the commission.
In Bauchi, Bala Mohammed, SEC’s enforcement leader, said the nationwide clampdown followed complaints from the investing public.
“We received intelligent reports about two months ago that a company called New Nation was involved in some dubious financial transactions.
“It was gathered that the company receives money from investors with promises of high returns on investment.
“Immediately, we swooped into action and carried out surveillance.
“We discovered that the company had branches in the 36 state of the federation, including the FCT, with headquarter in Port Harcourt.
“Our findings also indicated that the company was neither registered with the Central Bank nor with the SEC, the two financial regulatory bodies in the country,” he said.
Mr. Mohammed said that before any company could carry out any financial transaction; such a company must be duly registered and licensed by SEC or the Central Bank.
Answering questions from the commission’s agents, Tina Yohanna, the Branch Senior Client Analyst of New Nation in Bauchi, said that the company was not into financial transactions.
She said that all she knew was that the company, owned by Charles Dukwe, was involved in youth and women empowerment programmes.
“Our main activity here is empowerment of youth with basic computer skills to enable them earn a living in a technologically driven world.
“We carry out computer training, free of charge after the beneficiary obtains our application form at a cost of N1,000,” she said.
She said that about 100 people had registered for the computer programme.
Some of the clients said in Bauchi that they knew about the company and its operations through their friends.
One of the clients, Saidu Mudi, said that he registered because he was told that the programme was free.
“I was at home when a friend of mind came and told me that a company was training youths on computer education for free, after obtaining an application form for N1, 000.
“After submitting the form, we were told that we will be trained on computer skills for free and that those who excel will be employed by the company while others will be given computers on loan to start a business,” he said.
Another beneficiary, Franca James, said she became interested when she was told that she would be trained on computer for free and at the end of the training would be given a computer set also for free.
In Birnin Kebbi, another SEC Enforcement Officer, Babakura Mohammed, said that the commission’s enforcement and compliance department was on a national assignment to close financial institutions that did not comply with SEC Rules 2013, as amended.
Mr. Mohammed said that the illegal operators’ target high net worth individuals and companies in various states of the federation.
One of the arrested agents, Sahabi Emmanuel, said “the company targets women in oil business, and grey and strong’’.
Emmanuel, the New Nation company client analyst in the state, said he personally lured 21 unsuspecting members of the public into the illegal scheme.
According to him, a minimum monthly deposit of N8, 700 was collected from various women programmed to receive N10, 000 monthly dividends after 12 months contribution.
Also in Calabar, the Branch Manager of the illegal company, Benjamin Effiong, and an unidentified female staff of the company, was taken into custody after SEC sealed their office.
Alani Falade, leader of SEC enforcement team in Akure, advised the investing public to be wary of investment opportunities that looked “too good to be real.”
The team which confiscated the Akure branch operating equipment, after sealing the office, attributed the noticeable success profile of New Nation to poverty and covetousness.
The enforcement team leader of SEC in Kano, Abubakar Bello, said they had a court warrant from Abuja, to visit the company’s offices across Nigeria, search and seal them.
Mr. Bello told journalists in Kano that that the company was operating an illegal collective scheme where members of the public were invited to make investments.
Aminu Halilu, the Assistant Director, Legal Services of the commission, who led SEC’s team in Makurdi, also said that the exercise was carried out to protect innocent Nigerian investors.
Mr. Halilu said the commission had received complaints of illegal investment collections by the company from unsuspecting members of the public against the provisions of SEC.
Meanwhile, Sonnie Elimihe, who claimed to be the company’s legal adviser in Lagos, vowed to challenge the commission’s actions in court.
Mr. Elimihe said that New Nation’s activities were duly registered by the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, stressing that they were not into investment activities as alleged by SEC.
He said that the company was into buying and selling of blood pressure equipment under an initiative tagged ‘Grey & Strong’ to cater for elderly people from 50 years and above, among others.
Several equipment and documents were seized at the company’s branches in the seven states while the branch managers and workers were handed over to the police.
– NAN
Banking
Millions of customers still stranded worldwide 24 hours after GT Bank online operations suffered attacks
By Yemie ADEOYE
GT Bank, one of Nigeria’s leading banks, with operations across Africa and the United kingdom, and with an asset base of about US$3.11 trillion is under a cyber attack which has left millions of its customers across the world stranded in the last 24 hours.
The bank which was renowned for its seamless online operations at inception has suffered dwindling online efficiency in recent years and this current attack didn’t come as a surprise to many of its numerous customers. However, it is becoming worrisome that over 24 hours after its online operations went down, the bank has not been able to arrest the situation and restore its online services.
Stranded GT Bank customers outside the banks premises
Several customers of the bank took to their X (formerly known as twitter) handles to express their frustrations at the bank, as several of the customers in the diaspora are unable to access their accounts and carry on with their transactions. A customer , Jeff55 who lamented on his X handle about the development, stated that it is a thing of shock that a bank of this size couldn’t afford to have the necessary tools and experts to ensure a full protection of its online operations in this age and time.
Another customer Dimma stated that while Cybersecurity training may seem tedious, the recent #GTBank hack is a stark reminder that everyone is just a click away from a devastating attack.
Several media organisations had reported that hackers have stolen GT Bank website, and intercepted customers Data in massive phishing operation.
At the time of filing this report, Biztellers.com.ng checks on the banks website shows that it is still down and unaccessible, and neither GT Bank media and communications unit nor any of its agencies or surrogates have commented officially on the development.
Says output surge buoyed by reforms he announced in May 2024 to address gaps in PIA
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Sunday declared a resurgence in the oil & gas industry, commending the increased crude production to 1.6 million barrels per day.
The president, who said this in a national broadcast, maintained that the resurgence was buoyed by the reforms he announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Nigeria’s crude oil output got a boost to 1.61 million barrels per day in July 2024 through the president’s directive and the industry leadership provided by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
Acknowledging what he called a resurgence of the once-declining oil and gas industry in his Sunday-morning broadcast to the nation, President Tinubu said that oil investors are coming back to Nigeria.
He said; “Our once-declining oil and gas industry is experiencing a resurgence on the back of the reforms I announced in May 2024 to address the gaps in the Petroleum Industry Act. Last month, we increased our oil production to 1.61 million barrels per day, and our gas assets are receiving the attention they deserve. Investors are coming back, and we have already seen two Foreign Direct Investments signed of over half a billion dollars since then.
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“Fellow Nigerians, we are a country blessed with both oil and gas resources, but we met a country that had been dependent solely on oil-based petrol, neglecting its gas resources to power the economy.
We were also using our hard-earned foreign exchange to pay for and subsidise its use. To address this, we immediately launched our Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (CNG) to power our transportation economy and bring costs down.
This will save over two trillion Naira a month, being used to import PMS and AGO and free up our resources for more investment in healthcare and education.
“To this end, we will be distributing a million kits of extremely low or no cost to commercial vehicles that transport people and goods and who currently consume 80% of the imported PMS and AGO.
“We have started the distribution of conversion kits and the setting up of conversion centres across the country in conjunction with the private sector. We believe that this CNG initiative will reduce transportation costs by approximately 60 per cent and help to curb inflation.”
Plans are in top gear for the 11th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the FBN Holdings Plc.
The management made this disclosure in a notice it filed with the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) on Thursday, where it averred that it has not been served with any court order against the proposed AGM.
According to notice, which was signed by the acting Company Secretary, Adewale Arogundade, FBN Holding said, “The attention of FBN Holdings Plc (the Company) has been drawn to recent media reports purporting that the Company has received a Court Order stopping it from holding the Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for August 15, 2023.
“We confirm that this assertion is a false narrative as the Company has, as at the date hereof, not been served with any court order to stop the forthcoming AGM.
“Suffice to mention that the AGM is a statutory meeting of Shareholders that must be held in accordance with the law, further to which the Company will notify the regulators and the public as appropriate if there is any lawful order to restrain the Company from conducting same.
“We hereby assure our esteemed Shareholders that the AGM shall hold on August 15, 2023, as planned and we look forward to their attendance and active participation at the meeting.”
However, court orders published in national dailies showed that the Federal High Court in Lagos had issued an order against the financial institution, barring it from holding its 11th AGM.
The order was entered pursuant to a petition by Olusegun Onagoruwa, in suit No: FHC/L/CP/1271/2022. It was addressed to the bank and some other bank officials.
It read, “Take notice that unless you obey the directives in the judicial order contained in the order made on July 15, 2022, by the Federal High Court, Lagos, by refraining from proceeding with the 11th Annual General Meeting of FBN Holdings Limited proposed for August 15, 2023, from seeking approval to issue or raise share capital in any manner whatsoever, from appointing or confirming the appointment of new directors, or in any other manner taking any step towards implementing, actualising enforcing resolution of the 10th Annual General Meeting of FBN Holdings Plc held on June 20, 2022, or in any other manner overreaching, disobeying or undermining the said order of a court, you will be guilty of contempt of court and you will be liable to be committed to prison and to there imprisoned.”
Biztellers brought you a report that a segment of shareholders had staged a protest at the headquarters of the bank on Monday, calling for the AGM to be held, as well as soliciting regulatory interventions.
It is expected that at the AGM, FHN Holdings is poised to breathe life into plans to seek shareholders’ approval to raise N150bn fresh capital via a rights issue and elect new directors including billionaire, Femi Otedola and Samson Ariyibi among other resolutions.
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