Banking
How Safe Are Customer Deposits at FCMB?
By Dipo Olowookere
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits, which could be in form of cash or valuables, from the public with intention of keeping them safe for the owners.
However, when an institution that is supposed to be the safest place to keep valuables is riddled with stories of alleged fraudulent activities, then one must begin to wonder if the hard-earned deposits in their care are still safe.
Early this year, a report by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) had revealed that the number of employees of banks operating in Nigeria involved in malpractices in the financial sector increased in 2017 to 320 from 231 in 2016.
The report also documented other miscellaneous crimes such as fraudulent transfers/withdrawals, cash suppression, unauthorised credits, fraudulent conversion of cheques, diversion of customer deposits, diversion of bank charges, presentation of forged or stolen cheques, among others.
It had disclosed that the 22 licensed commercial banks and four merchant banks rendered 286 returns on dismissed/terminated staff as a result of fraud and forgeries during the year under review.
NDIC had said out of the 26,182 fraud cases reported by the 26 licensed banks, 320 cases were attributable to internal collaboration by bank staff.
The report relied on a total of 286 responses received from 26 banks during the period under review.
“The 286 responses received from banks in 2017 cited 26,182 cases of fraud and forgeries which is 56.30% higher compared to 16,751 cases reported in 2016.
“Similarly, the amount involved in the fraudulent activities documented increased by N3.33 billion from the N8.68 billion reported in 2016 to N12.01 billion in 2017 or 38%.
“However, the Expected/Actual loss slightly decreased by N24.42 million or 1.03% from N2.39 billion in 2016 to N2.37 billion in 2017,” Head of Communications and Public Affairs Unit of NDIC, Mr Mohammed Kudu Ibrahim, had said.
On fraudulent activities in the online-banking and ATM/card-related fraud-types, Mr Ibrahim said it constituted 24,266 or 92.68 percent of all the reported cases, resulting in N1.51 billion or 63.66 percent loss in the industry in 2017.
In recent times, there have been unpalatable news stories coming out from First City Monument Bank (FCMB), a mid-tier lender in Nigeria.
Recently, it was reported that eight members of staff of the bank were declared wanted by police in Lagos over the disappearance of N600 million from accounts of customers of FCMB.
The Divisional Police Office, Lion Building, Campbell Street at the Lagos Island had urged members of the public with information of the fleeing suspects to get in touch with the nearest police station or call 08033068667 and 08182465467.
The names of the bankers declared by the police were Linda Natufe Chekwube, Matthew Akpan Benny, Juwon Faromoh, Oluwasoji Ajetumobi, Ogunlaja Olasukanmi Ganiyu, Oshiojum Chibuzor Wilson, Akanaga Christian Chika and Nelson Omuzagha.
Recall that on January 19, 2018, two officials of the bank identified as Walter Ekomaye and Ebenezer Adelowo, were arraigned for allegedly making illegal withdrawal of N23 million from customers’ accounts and stealing N17.5 million from Automated Teller Machine (ATM) deposits.
In another case, a staff of FCMB known as Adejare Sonde was arraigned recently over the theft of N124 million from a depositor’s account.
Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in Ibadan Zone, arraigned the suspect before Justice A. A. Akinyemi of the State High Court sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State, on a 12-count charge bordering on stealing, forgery and uttering.
Sonde was accused of using his position as the account officer to a micro-finance bank to steal N124 million from the customer’s account.
The petitioner explained that Sonde, as account officer of the customer, allegedly collected cash from the micro-finance bank on several occasions totalling N124 million which were not credited into the customer’s account.
Further investigations revealed that the defendant (Sonde) allegedly doctored emails which he sent to the micro-finance bank as monthly statements of account, while there was no remittance in the account.
Few weeks ago, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos ordered FCMB and United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc to appear before it to explain their roles in an alleged N131.2 million fraud charge.
Justice Hadiza Rabiu-Shagari gave the order during the trial of four accused persons, who were arraigned before her court by the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (FCIID), Alagbon-Ikoyi, Lagos.
The four accused persons are: Honourable Anthony Alaka, (a.k.a General, a former member of the House of Representatives, representing Eti-Osa Federal Constituency, Saidi Oke, Bashir Mohammed: and Alhaji Umar Ali.
The four accused persons were arraigned on charges bordering on conspiracy and fraud to the tune of N131.2 million.
Also charged with the accused persons are two firms: Grantland Investment Nigeria Limited and Abroad Development Foundation.
At the resumed trial of the accused persons, the fraud victim, Austin Albert Ugochukwu, had informed the court the suspected fraudsters, carried out the alleged act through the three banks.
Consequently, the prosecutor, Dr Iman E., asked the court to summon the banks so that they can come and explain their roles in the alleged alleged fraud.
Upon the request of the prosecutor, Justice Rabiu-Shagari, summoned the banks and ordered that hearing notice should issue to them.
Narrating his ordeal before the court, the fraud victim, Ugochukwu, told the court how each of the accused persons induced him to give them the sum of N350 million in exchange for $1 million, and how they reneged only to give him $29, 900, 000.
In his evidence before the court, the victim said: “I transferred the sum of N350 million from my Bank account, to Grantland Investment Nigeria Limited, domiciled in UBA and FCMB, belonging to Alhaji Umar (fourth defendant), from my account. And since the money was paid, the fourth defendant refused to pick my calls, it was then I told my account officer to place post-no-debit order on the account, so that they would not be able to access the money.
“I was surprised, when the fourth defendant who have not being picking my calls, quickly called and said he was with the General (first accused) and was confirming the Dollars cash, and wanted to transfer the N350 million into the account of Grantland investment Limited, before General will allow him to bring the $1 million to me, but my account has been restricted, and told me to lift the restriction, so that he can come to me with the dollars”.
Ugochukwu said he refused the fourth accused person plea, but later yielded due to the intervention of one Dr. Cyraicus Anyawu, who is now at large, whom he said convinced him in Ibo language, and that he later called his account officer to lift the restriction.
He also told the court that after he lifted the restriction on his account, the second accused, Saidi Oke, only came to him with $29,199, USD, and promised to come on the next day with the balance of $870,100, but to his surprise, the second accused called and told him that he was at the Ikoyi office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), where a petition was written against him and seller of the Dollars.
Ugochukwu further told the court that while the other accused were arrested except first accused, they told him that he had been defrauded and he collapsed upon hearing that, and that when he regained his consciousness, they told him to withdraw the matter if he wanted to get his money back.
He also told the court how the men of Inspector-General of Police Monitoring Team (IGP monitoring) mounted pressure on the Area ‘J’ Command, Lagos, to transfer the matter to them in order to frustrate it, but added that the first accused, Honourable Alaka, who had been elusive while the case was in Lagos, was arrested.
These are few of the many negative stories of FCMB in the public domain, giving the financial institution a bad perception, which is might not merit.
FCMB, led by Mr Adam Nuru, prides itself as one of the most reliable financial institutions in Nigeria, but issues like these leave many to doubt this claim.
Apart of cases of fraud, which have made some depositors of the lender to continue to wonder how safe their monies are, there are reports and allegations that the bank treats its workers like slaves, a claim Business Post has not independently verified and would not want to subscribe to.
However, one key question some may have asked is what FCMB is doing to ensure its bank is not a safe haven for fraudsters in banker’s clothes.
Business Post reached out to the management of FCMB on the issues raised in this piece.
In his reaction, Head of Media Relations at FCMB, Mr Louis Ibe, said “from all indications, no customer has shown any fear about the safety of his or her deposit and there’s no inquiry from any other person either, on the rumoured allegation in the Social Media you mentioned.”
He further said the financial institution was growing stronger, “reporting a gross revenue ofN169.9 billion” in the 2017 financial year.
“Going by the audited results, the Group recorded a profit before tax (PBT) of N11.5 billion, while profit after tax (PAT) was N9.4billion. Following these, the financial institution has recommended a dividend of 10 kobo per share to be paid to shareholders.
“And in demonstration of the enhanced confidence of customers in FCMB, deposits grew to N689.9 billion as at the end of December 2017, an increase of 5 percent, from N657.6 billion in the corresponding year.
“The Group’s capital adequacy ratio also improved to 16.9 5 percent from 16.7 5 percent, just as asset base increased to N1.19 trillion, compared to N1.17 trillion at the end of 2016. Non-interest income as at the end of 2017 was N32 billion, while loans and advances stood at N649.8 billion.”
According to him, “in spite of the reduction in the headline numbers, the Group’s performance for the year 2017 witnessed an improvement in core operating performance over the previous year after adjusting for the significant foreign exchange revaluation income enjoyed in 2016.
“In line with the repositioning strategy of the Group for better performance, the key drivers of the performance include increase in income from our non-banking activities, lower impairment charges from the Bank and its subsidiaries, and improved operating efficiencies through more pervasive use of technology.”
Mr Ibe further said in his reaction that, “In November 2017, FCMB completed the acquisition of an additional 60 5 percent stake in Legacy Pension Managers Limited, which increased FCMB’s stake from 28.2 5 percent to 88.2 5 percent, thereby making Legacy a subsidiary of FCMB.
“The acquisition helps achieve further diversification of service offerings and, consequently, earnings within the FCMB Group, which will be felt from the 2018 financial year.”
“FCMB Microfinance Bank Limited, the Group’s dedicated group lending and financial inclusion vehicle, commenced operations as a state microfinance bank in January 2017.
“The business will be the key driver of FCMB’s informal and agricultural sectors (particularly small-holder farmers) drive across the country. These two sectors account for over 40% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP),” he added.
“Following these developments, FCMB Group Plc’s operating companies are now divided along three business groups – Commercial and Retail Banking (First City Monument Bank Limited, Credit Direct Limited, FCMB (UK) Limited and FCMB Microfinance Bank Limited); Investment Banking (FCMB Capital Markets Limited and CSL Stockbrokers Limited); and Asset & Wealth Management (Legacy Pension Managers Limited, First City Asset Management Limited and CSL Trustees Limited),” Mr Ibe noted.
The bank’s spokesman disclosed that “barring any unforeseen circumstances, we see improved operating performance in 2018 based on the improving macro-economic and capital markets environment, declining cost of funds for the bank, and the growing contributions of asset and wealth management following last year’s acquisitions.”
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Nine persons linked to one of Nigeria’s biggest indigenous steel-and-manufacturing conglomerates, Western Metal Products Company (WEMPCO) Limited, could land in prison for allegedly defying an order of a Federal High Court protecting United Bank for Africa’s claim and disrupting the operations of a court-appointed receiver manager.
Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos issued a stern Form 48 (Notice of Consequence of Disobedience to Order of Court), warning key directors and shareholders—including Lewis Shui Ngor Tung, Phillip Shui Che Tung, Robert Tung, Lawrence Tung, Taiwo Alli and others—that they face possible imprisonment for contempt of court after allegedly interfering with the Receiver/Manager appointed by UBA to take over key collateral assets.
The Form 48 notice, a formal warning under Nigerian civil procedure that precedes imprisonment for contempt, was published as a legal notice after personal service could evidently not be completed on the individuals, all listed at the same address: 18 Wempco Road, Ogba, Ikeja, Lagos (Federal High Court of Nigeria, Suit No. FHC/L/CS/555/26).
UBA is aggressively pursuing the recovery of syndicated and direct loan facilities amounting to about N61.5 billion (approximately $39 million) from WEMPCO and 16 related corporate entities.
Justice Aluko has already granted an Order of Mareva Injunctions freezing accounts belonging to the WEMPCO group across 27 commercial banks and fintechs.
According to MoneyCentral, UBA wants to recover the funds from 17 companies in the WEMPCO stable, from flagship Western Metal Products Company Limited down to Nigerian Enamelware Company Plc, Lagos Oriental Hotel Limited and Prime Nigeria Wood Products Co. Ltd. It disbursed the money to the firms under a Multicurrency Multiple Credit Facility Agreement dated September 30, 2019.
On April 2, 2026, the court granted UBA an interim Mareva injunction freezing up to N61.5 billion in WEMPCO-linked funds across 27 banks and fintech platforms, appointed a receiver-manager over WEMPCO’s unencumbered assets, and ordered the financial institutions to disclose any WEMPCO funds in their custody.
Anatomy of the Freeze
By the Order of April 2, 2026, Justice Aluko granted UBA ‘s Application filed on March 31, 2026. The Orders made were:
- Broad Asset Freeze (Mareva Injunction): The court restrained WEMPCO and 16 sister companies from operating accounts or transferring funds up to N61.5 billion. All 27 financial institution respondents—ranging from tier-1 banks to modern fintech processors like Moniepoint, OPay, and Kuda—must disclose and hold any balance standing to the credit of the defendants.
- Receiver/Manager Appointment: One Romeo Ese Michael, Esq., was appointed Receiver/Manager over WEMPCO’s assets not under the Multicurrency Multiple Credit Facility Agreement. This includes physical asset takeovers, such as two major Wärtsilä power generators.
Nine Names, One Address
The Form 48 lists nine individuals “to be committed” to prison for contempt, namely Lewis Shui Ngor Tung, Phillip Shui Che Tung, M.A. Ola Yusuf (Alh), Tung Lawrence Blake, Alli Aare Hadji Tokunbo, Paul Shui Po Tung, Tung Robert, Cl Ip, and Taiwo Alli.
Two names are independently identifiable in WEMPCO’s public corporate filings: Taiwo Alli is the sitting Managing Director/CEO of NGX-listed Nigerian Enamelware Company Plc — one of the 17 corporate defendants — while Robert Tung sits on that same board as a non-executive director and is one of the two brothers who built WEMPCO into its current scale.
That a sitting MD of a publicly listed Nigerian company now faces a documented risk of committal to prison over a corporate group’s unpaid debt underscores the reputational and governance stakes for WEMPCO’s listed arm, quite apart from the group’s privately held entities.
The Receiver and the 2019 Facility
The receiver-manager order points to the roots of the dispute: A Multicurrency Multiple Credit Facility Agreement dated 30 September 2019, under which UBA financed part of WEMPCO’s industrial build-out — the same period in which the group was completing major steel and power infrastructure investments.
The court’s specific mention of “two Wärtsilä engines (generators)… wherever they may be found” as receivership targets signals that WEMPCO’s captive power assets — critical to running energy-intensive steel and ceramics plants — are now squarely within the bank’s reach for recovery.
The Rise and Fall of WEMPCO Group
Few Nigerian conglomerates have as large a footprint with as little public profile as WEMPCO. The group was founded by the late Mr K.F. Tung, a Chinese-born entrepreneur who first visited Nigeria in 1967 and built an enamelware business before expanding into steel, ceramics, timber, agriculture and hospitality; he died in March 2019 at age 97, having led the group for more than five decades.
His sons, Lewis Tung and Robert Tung, subsequently took the business forward, growing it into one of Nigeria’s largest manufacturing employers, with more than 12,000-13,000 workers across 11-plus subsidiaries.
At its peak, WEMPCO was one of Nigeria’s largest diversified conglomerates, operating massive cold-rolled steel mills, enamelware plants, ceramic tile factories, nail production plants, and agricultural investments across Lagos and Ogun states.
The group owns high-profile real estate assets, including the 5-star Lagos Oriental Hotel on Victoria Island/Lekki, alongside industrial facilities spanning over 700,000 metric tonnes of steel capacity.
Over the past decade, however, severe foreign exchange shortages, cheap imported/smuggled alternatives, high energy overheads, tax defaults, and shifting government trade policies caused deep operational paralysis across WEMPCO’s 11+ subsidiaries.
As revenue collapsed, debt loads surged into hundreds of billions of Naira across the Nigerian financial sector, culminating in UBA’s enforcement actions to protect its balance sheet.
That scale is precisely why the case matters beyond the courtroom: WEMPCO is not a marginal borrower, but one of Nigeria’s largest indigenous industrial employers, and the outcome of this dispute carries direct implications for thousands of manufacturing jobs concentrated in Ogba and Ogun State.
Why This Matters: Depositor Money Is Not Free Money
The scale of UBA’s claim — N61.5 billion frozen pending trial, against a backdrop of a 2019 multicurrency facility likely running into the hundreds of billions of naira in total exposure across WEMPCO’s group structure — is a reminder of a basic truth in banking that is easy to lose sight of in a contentious court fight: the money banks lend to conglomerates like WEMPCO is not the bank’s own capital sitting idle.
It is depositors’ money — the savings of ordinary Nigerians, the working capital of small businesses, and the pension and insurance assets pooled through the banking system — recycled into loans that the bank is obligated to repay to its depositors whether or not the borrower repays the bank.
This is not an abstract concern in Nigeria’s current banking environment. The industry’s non-performing loans (NPL) ratio climbed to 8.03 per cent in January 2026 and to 9.85 per cent by February 2026, well above the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 5 per cent prudential threshold, after the CBN withdrew pandemic-era regulatory forbearance that had allowed banks to avoid classifying restructured loans as impaired.
Fitch Ratings has projected the ratio could fall back toward 5 per cent by year-end 2026, helped by fresh bank capital raised to meet the CBN’s new minimum capital requirements and by write-offs — but only if recoveries like UBA’s WEMPCO action succeed in converting non-performing exposures back into cash.
The CBN itself has warned that a stubborn rise in bad loans “could impair asset quality and weaken banks’ balance sheets,” posing systemic risk, and has pushed banks to deepen use of the Global Standing Instruction framework — precisely the kind of cross-bank fund-tracing mechanism reflected in UBA’s 27-institution Mareva order against WEMPCO — to improve recovery discipline.
Every naira UBA cannot recover from a defaulting borrower is a naira the bank must provision for out of its own capital and earnings — capital that could otherwise support new lending to other Nigerian businesses, or income that could otherwise be paid out as dividends to millions of Nigerian shareholders and pensioners with holdings in UBA stock.
Aggressive but lawful recovery action of the kind on display in the WEMPCO case is, in that sense, not simply a bank protecting its own balance sheet; it is a bank protecting the deposit base and credit capacity of the wider financial system.
Corporate Responsibility and the Nigerian Economy
Firms of WEMPCO’s scale carry an obligation that runs in both directions. On one hand, WEMPCO’s decades of investment in steel, enamelware, ceramics, wood products and hospitality have made it a genuine contributor to Nigeria’s industrial base and a major direct employer, with the group’s own account of its history stressing that it has “contributed immensely to the economy of Nigeria in particular and West Africa in general”.
On the other hand, that same scale means WEMPCO’s credit obligations were sized accordingly — a multicurrency, multi-billion-naira facility syndicated in 2019 — and the responsibility to service such facilities is inseparable from the privilege of accessing that scale of capital in the first place.
When large borrowers fall behind and resist enforcement, as UBA alleges is happening here, the costs are not confined to the bank’s shareholders.
Delayed recoveries constrain the credit banks can extend to other manufacturers, exporters and small businesses; they can pressure a bank’s capital adequacy ratios and, in aggregate across the industry, contribute to the kind of system-wide NPL pressure the CBN has flagged as a threat to financial stability.
Conversely, orderly and timely repayment — even when it requires restructuring or receivership rather than immediate cash settlement — protects the thousands of workers whose jobs depend on WEMPCO’s continued operation, preserves the bank’s capacity to keep lending into the real economy, and reinforces credit discipline across a banking sector the CBN is actively trying to strengthen after the post-forbearance clean-up.
It is worth noting that the reliefs UBA has obtained so far are interim measures granted pending a full hearing on the Motion on Notice, and that WEMPCO’s companies and the named individuals retain the right to contest the underlying claims in court.
The Bottom Line
UBA’s push to freeze N61.5 billion in WEMPCO-linked funds, install a receiver-manager over the group’s flagship steel unit, and now pursue contempt proceedings against nine individuals tied to the conglomerate marks one of the more aggressive corporate debt-recovery actions in Nigeria’s banking sector this year.
For a bank operating in an industry still working through the aftershocks of the CBN’s forbearance withdrawal and a near-10 per cent sector NPL ratio, recovering large legacy exposures is not optional housekeeping; it is central to protecting depositor funds, sustaining lending capacity and keeping Nigeria’s banking system stable.
The court’s enforcement action in UBA vs. WEMPCO marks a decisive moment for credit governance in Nigeria. With 27 financial institutions bound by court injunctions and corporate officers facing criminal contempt, UBA’s Receiver/Manager is positioned to realise underlying assets. Analysts say the outcome of this case will set a precedent for corporate debt resolution, financial system accountability, and the rule of law across Nigeria’s industrial landscape.
By Adedapo Adesanya
First Holdco Plc has commenced a public offer to raise about N1.4 trillion (approximately $1 billion) after securing approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The offer, which opened on Monday, involves the sale of 10.4 billion ordinary shares, according to the chief executive of its banking subsidiary, First Bank of Nigeria Limited, Mr Olusegun Alebiosu.
The capital raise follows the company’s earlier plan to transfer about a quarter of its shares to RC Investment Management Ltd., which served as a bridge holder after Barbican Capital Limited exited its investment in the lender amid a prolonged ownership and leadership dispute.
First Holdco had previously indicated that the shares would eventually be offered to the investing public once the necessary regulatory approvals were obtained.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, Mr Alebiosu said proceeds from the offer would strengthen the capital base of First Bank and support the holding company’s expansion strategy.
According to him, the group intends to diversify beyond banking by establishing an insurance underwriting business and a fintech services company.
“The sale is starting today — the reality here is that I am not sure it will stay more than one week based on the pressure we are getting,” Mr Alebiosu said, expressing confidence in strong investor demand.
Investors appeared to respond positively to the announcement, with First HoldCo’s shares climbing as much as 5.9 per cent to a record high during trading on Monday before easing to a 3.1 per cent gain at N133.60 by early afternoon in Lagos.
The lender has been one of the best-performing banking stocks on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited over the past year, with its share price rising more than fourfold since July 2025, when Barbican Capital’s stake was transferred to RC Investment Management.
The fresh capital injection comes as its largest shareholder, Mr Femi Otedola, continues to strengthen his stake in Nigeria’s oldest bank. With the billionaire holding around a 26 per cent stake in the company, analysts say he has his eyes set on full control once his equity crosses the 30 per cent mark.
By Adedapo Adesanya
One of Nigeria’s top digital banks, PalmPay, has appointed a former executive of the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS), Mr Samuel Oluyemi, as its chief operating officer.
In his new role, Mr Oluyemi will oversee the financial technology company’s operations in Nigeria, where it offers a broad range of digital financial services to individuals and businesses.
Mr Oluyemi will also engage with regulators to ensure the company’s expansion aligns with Nigeria’s financial, digital and social inclusion objectives.
Prior to joining the company, Mr Oluyemi spent more than two decades at NIBSS, where he served as business development lead.
During his tenure, he drove the development of several critical payment infrastructure projects, including the digital validation of Nigerian international passports, e-Dividend Mandate Management System (e-DMMS), and the Electronic Pensions Contribution Collection System (EPCCOS).
Also, he played a key role in the introduction and early adoption of the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform, Nigeria’s first real-time interbank transfer system launched in 2011, and later supported its extension to other financial institutions.
Mr Oluyemi obtained a master’s degree in Monetary Economics from the University of Ibadan and has participated in several local and international professional training programmes.
Commenting on the appointment, Managing Director of PalmPay Nigeria, Mr Chika Nwosu, said that the company was strengthening its leadership team to support its longterm vision.
