Banking
Fidelity Bank Seeks Court Interpretation on N225bn Payout, Denies Bankruptcy
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Fidelity Bank Plc has already approached the court for an interpretation of the reported N225 billion judgement against it by the Supreme Court.
On Monday, it was reported that the apex court has asked the financial institution to pay a Nigerian company N225 billion as damages.
In a statement to the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited, the lender said the judgment debt arose from a legacy transaction between the defunct FSB International Bank and Sagecom Concepts Limited.
It explained that FSB gave a $3 million loan to G. Cappa Plc in 2002 and was secured with mortgage on a property located in Ikoyi, Lagos.
In the statement, the bank said G. Cappa defaulted on the repayment of the loan and in a bid to prevent FSB from selling the mortgaged property to repay the loan, G. Cappa commenced an action against FSB at the Federal High Court, Lagos, to stop the sale.
The Federal High Court in its judgment ruled that the FSB as legal mortgagor rightfully sold the leased interest in the property to Sagecom in 2011, but declined to order vacant possession of the property and directed the issue of vacant possession to the Lagos State High Court.
In the meantime, G. Cappa remained in possession of the property and kept collecting rents therefrom.
In 2011, Sagecom instituted an action against the bank and G. Cappa at the Lagos State High Court seeking damages against lender for breach of contract and for possession of the property.
The claim was for liquidated damages calculated as rentals on the several component apartments in the property plus interest on same over different time frames.
In 2018, the Lagos High Court awarded judgment in favour of Sagecom against G. Cappa and the bank which judgment was challenged at the Supreme Court.
The financial institution argued that by remaining in possession of the property and continuing to collect rents therefrom, G. Cappa orchestrated all the losses suffered by Sagecom, but having exhausted the appeal process, the bank said it was willing to settle the obligation.
“There are significant ambiguities in the judgment resulting in difficulties in calculating the actual financial liability to the G.Cappa and the bank which is about N14 billion from our computation based on the exchange rate as of 2005 when the incident and cause of action arose,” Fidelity Bank said in the statement.
To back this up, it cited the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of Anibaba v Dana Airlines Limited delivered in January 2025, which clarified that foreign currency judgment debt must be converted to Naira at the exchange rate obtainable at the date of judgment of the trial court, which in this case was January 30, 2018.
“Even if the 2018 exchange rate supported by the Supreme Court is applied, the judgment debt will just be under N30.7 billion payable by G.Cappa Plc (who delayed delivery of possession of the apartments from 2005 till June 2018 when possession was eventually delivered) with contribution from the bank.
“Consequently, the bank has applied to the court for a clarification and inquiry into the proper interpretation of the judgment and the computation of the actual quantum properly and lawfully payable by G.Cappa and the bank.
“The court has accordingly ordered Sagecom to maintain status quo pending the determination of pending motions and restrained Sagecom and all persons from publishing any material in the media as the matter is still pending in court,” it stated.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The six edition of the Hackaholics of Wema Bank Plc has produced 20 top finalists shared equally between two streams, Ideathon and Hackathon.
The Hackathon finalists are Rapid DEV, Secure IT, Neurafeed, Trust Lock Babcock, Pulse Track, IlluminiTrust, Trust Lock FUTA, Fix Fraud AI, KASH Flow and VOC AI.
The Ideathon finalists include PLOY, Fertitude, VarsityScape, Mama ALERT, StockMed, Chao, All Arbitrate, FarmSlate, Sane AI and Cycle X.
They emerged after a two-day pre-pitch held on December 16 and 17, 2025, for the grand finale slated for Friday, December 19, 2025.
They grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0 will convene the top players in Africa’s tech and innovation ecosystem, creating an avenue for these finalists to not only put their creativity to the ultimate test but also give their solutions visibility to potential investors for additional funding opportunities beyond the prizes to be won.
The prizes to be won for the Ideathon include N25 million for the winner, N20 million for the first runner-up, N15 million for the second runner-up and N5 million each for two women-led teams.
In the Hackathon category, the first to fourth-place winners will receive N20 million, N15 million, N10 million and N5 million, respectively.
The pre-pitch saw the top 43 contenders battle in a game of innovation and problem solving, presenting compelling pitches for a chance to make it to top 10 in their respective streams.
After a rigorous stretch of pitches and presentations, the top 20 emerged, securing their spot in the grand finale of Hackaholics 6.0.
“Hackaholics started off as a hackathon and morphed into an ideation. For Hackaholics 6.0, the sixth edition, we decided to give both the builders of new solutions and the refiners of existing ones, an opportunity to make meaningful impact.
“For us at Wema Bank, we understand that innovation isn’t just building from scratch. Sometimes, it’s looking at what exists and developing new ways to optimise that and create more efficiency. This is the idea behind our two-stream Ideathon-Hackathon structure.
“Every year, Hackaholics shows us just how eager and motivated Nigerian youth are when it comes to exploring creativity and innovation, and we are honoured to be the institution that provides them with the platform and resources to put this drive to good use.
“We toured seven cities, indulged 1,460 participants and discovered hundreds of remarkable ideas; some of which needed some refining and some of which deserved to move to the next stage.
“For those who needed to go back to the drawing board, we provided useful guidance and for the top contenders, we were able to shortlist to the top 43, who proceeded to the pre-pitch. To every participant, Wema Bank is proud of you. This is just the beginning,” the chief executive of Wema Bank, Mr Moruf Oseni, said.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) says it will enforce penalties against designated banks that delay the remittance of customs revenue, in a move aimed at strengthening transparency and safeguarding government earnings.
This was disclosed in a statement on the NCS official account on X, formerly known as Twitter and signed by its spokesman, Mr Abdullahi Maiwada, who said the delays undermine the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.
“The Nigeria Customs Service has noted instances of delayed remittance of customs revenue by some designated banks following reconciliation of collections processed through the B’odogwu platform,” the statement read.
“Such delays constitute a breach of remittance obligations and negatively impact the efficiency, transparency, and integrity of government revenue administration.
“In line with the provisions of the Service Level Agreement executed between the Nigeria Customs Service and designated banks, the Service hereby notifies stakeholders of the commencement of enforcement actions against banks found to be in default of agreed remittance timelines.”
Mr Maiwada disclosed that any bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed timeline will be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the period of the delay.
He added that affected banks would be formally notified of the delayed amounts, the applicable penalty, and the deadline for settlement.
“Accordingly, any designated bank that fails to remit collected Customs revenue within the prescribed period shall be liable to penalty interest calculated at three per cent above the prevailing Nigerian Interbank Offered Rate for the duration of the delay.
“Affected banks will receive formal notifications indicating the delayed amount, applicable penalty, and the timeline for settlement,” the statement read.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The deputy managing director of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Limited, Mr Ini Ebong, has offloaded some shares of FBN Holdings Plc, the parent firm of the banking institution.
A regulatory notice from the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited confirmed the development on Thursday.
It was disclosed that the transaction occurred on Friday, December 12, 2025, on the floor of the stock exchange.
The sale involved about 11.8 million shares, precisely 11,783,333 units traded at N31.14 per share, amounting to about N366.9 million.
Mr Ebong, who studied Architecture from University of Ife and obtained Bachelor and Master of Science degrees, became the DMD of First Bank in June 2024. Prior to this appointment, he was Executive Director, Treasury and International Banking since January 2022.
He was previously the Group Executive, Treasury and International Banking, a position he held since 2016 after serving as the bank’s Treasurer from 2011 to 2016.
Before joining First Bank, he was the Head of African Fixed Income and Local Markets Trading, Renaissance Securities Nigeria Limited, the Nigerian registered subsidiary of Renaissance Capital. He also worked with Citigroup for 14 years as Country Treasurer and Sales and Trading Business Head.
He has a passion for market development and has worked actively to drive change and internationalisation of the Nigerian financial markets: foreign exchange, fixed income and securities.
He has worked closely with regulatory bodies such as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Debt Management Office (DMO) in assisting with the development of fresh monetary and foreign exchange policies, to broaden and deepen markets and open them up to international practices.
At various times he has facilitated and delivered courses and seminars on a wide variety of subjects covering Money Markets, Securities and Foreign exchange trading and market risk management subjects to regulators, corporate customers, banks and market participants.
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