-Why the Bank Depends on Lagos State Government Account
It was in September 2018 that the operating license of the now defunct Skye Bank Plc was revoked. And Skye Bank was renamed Polaris Bank Limited. Mr. Adetokunbo Mukhail Abiru who had been appointed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2016 to turn Skye Bank’s failing course around, continued as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Polaris Bank.
However, he has been struggling to keep Polaris Bank going since he assumed office, and also keep his word of taking the bank to the top as he had assured CBN. And this had, in May 2019, pushed a group of people to send series of petitions seeking Tokunbo Abiru’s removal for poor performance.
Mr. Abiru who had started his banking career in 1991 at Guaranty Trust Bank PLC, and served as the Lagos state Commissioner of Finance from 2011-2013, under former Governor Babatunde Fashola, was known as one of the best bankers in the country. And he has three decades of banking experience under his belt. So, despite the backlash and the pressure from a dwindling financial report, at the end of 2019, he pushed and made a breakthrough as Polaris Bank ended the fiscal year with a Profit before Tax of 27.8 billion naira. But this year has seen a decline as it is alleged that high profiled customers are pulling out of the bank.
Early this year, in March, when the nationwide lockdown was imposed because of COVID-19, Polaris Bank had sent a tweet urging their customers to adopt their online and USSD banking system. Displeased customers left angry comments on the tweet, complaining that the platforms were not working. Some complained that they had tried to make transfers which failed, yet they were debited. Many dissatisfied customers began to make threats of leaving the struggling bank, and some kept to their words and closed their accounts. And this has left the struggling bank in disarray.
As former Commissioner for Finance, MD Abiru had forged political ties. And through these ties he forged a relationship between the bank and the Lagos state government. And with the pull out of high profiled customers from Polaris Bank, it may be the accounts of the Lagos state government that could give the bank the financial strength it needs to stay afloat.