Foreign rating of Nigerian banks nebulous, says Imoukhuede

Group managing director and chief executive officer of Access Bank Nigeria Plc. Aig-Aigboje Imoukhuede has described the rating of Nigeria banks by foreign agencies as a nebulous exercise. He said there are three rating companies internationally; Standard and Poor`s Fitch and moodier. While in Nigeria there are a few, but the most popular is Agusto and Co. His words: If you have somebody rate a bank from a risk perspective and it is not one of those institutions, it is what they call a nebulous exercise. However, the Access Bank boss reiterated, that everybody has a right to their own opinion. The only thing we ask is when people make a statement; they should show the logic behind it. Responding to questions from shareholders of the bank at the 2009 Annual General Meeting of the Bank, held on July 14, 2009, Imoukhuede said that reporting in newspapers shouldn`t be an opaque or witchcraft exercise where someone will put banks in categories and nobody can decipher how. Speaking further, he noted that the new CBN governor in his maiden address to the press said it all when he alluded to the fact that the media should be very constructive in their reporting. And that the public should avoid reaching conclusions from reports like that of The African Report.

July 17, 2009