Adamawa State House of Assembly Standing Committee on Finance, Budget and Appropriation has pledged its support to the recapitalisation of Adamawa State Homes and Savings to the tune of #2.billion.
According to the House Committee, the recapitalisation of the State Homes and Savings with the sum of #2.5billion will enable it perform its activities as expected by the citizens and the government of the state.
The Chairman of the House Committee and Member representing Demsa constituency, Hon. Kate Raymond Mamuno, who made the pledge during a familiarisation tour of her committee at the organisation on Monday, said that the committee will do everything possible to ensure the recapitalisation of the bank as directed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Hon. Kate, said that her committee found it necessary to visit the bank to familiarise itself with the new management team, as well as be briefed on the modus operandi of the organisation, operational challenges and deliberate on how base to address them.
The female legislator added that the visit was not to witchunt anybody, rather to interact or interface on how to move the organisation forward in the interest of the state, and appealed to the management of the organisation to furnish the committee with necessary inputs aimed at making the organisation live up its expectations.
Responding, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Adamawa Homes and Savings, Dr. Giscard Norris Stanley, informed the committee that the bank was incorporated in 2004, and began operation in 2005, with the share capital of #100 million and that the present share capital of the bank is #142 million.
The MD/CEO disclosed that the position is not tenable as a result of the fact that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has introduced the new share capital base for Mortgage banks which is up to #2.5billion, saying that their inability to scale up the bank's share capital to the level since 2013, when the new share capital base was introduced adversely affected the bank.
Dr. Norris lamented that the previous governments within the period did not pay attention to the issue despite all pleadings, explaining that he had gone through files and seen efforts by the previous managements to get the governments ensure its recapitalisation to enable it perform its traditional role as mortgage guarantee company.
He added that the organisation is a mortgage bank and expected to provide mortgage services to the people and the government, saying that it is the only Mortgage bank in the entire North east, and the implication is that the business environment is so wide and limitless that they cannot dominate the state, but the entire North east, and that they can invite other governments to patronise them.
According to him, it is impossible for those kinds of responsibilities to be carried out as a result of lack of recapitalisation, pointing out that based on records, the first attempt to address the challenges in the bank was in 2014, by then Acting Governor and now the Executive Governor, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri.
He said that Governor Fintiri had actually tried as much as possible to reposition the bank, but unfortunately events did not allow his government to achieve his noble objectives for the for organisation.
He stated that Governor Fintiri has so far revived the place by first bringing in a new management team who were selected based on merit, saying all of them found themselves there because they are professional bankers, and that at the moment there are changes in the bank taking into cognisance that banking is all about competition, and that if a bank fails to present itself well, nobody will patronise it.
He hinted that since June when they came on board to date, their active customer base has risen from 4000 to 6000, saying if within the period they have 2000 customers, there is possibility that within a single year, the entire banking public will be in Adamawa Homes and Shavings.
He told the committee that the CBN has been putting pressure on them to recapitalise, and that it has given them enough warnings, saying that they supposed to have gone into extinction as from July based on CBN service but due to the intervention by Governor Fintiri.
He explained that the #2.5billion is going to remain in the system and open for use by the state government, noting that it is meant to show that the bank has the capacity to do the business as required by law and pleaded with the government to ensure the recapitalisation of the bank.
Dr. Giscard Norris Stanley, stated further that the coming of the committee will be saving grace in the sense that they will use the opportunity to urge on the government to recapitalise the bank and thanked the committee for the visit.
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