Savannah Bank Nigeria assures customers that they will not lose their deposits.

By ONYINYE NWACHUKWU

Savannah Bank would be allowed to lose monies deposited with it since eight years the bank went into crisis, its authorities assured on Thursday.

The assurance follows the bank’s ongoing preparatory activities to re-enter the Nigerian already competitive market. The bank said it would roll out a definite plan soon expected to herald its commencement of operations but that it’s been taking stock and carrying out some verification exercise since February, with about 90 percent of the process already concluded.

The bank also announced that it was sourcing investments, locally and internationally, even though it further assured that the required take-off capital would not be a problem. Richard Abrahams, chairman of the bank’s board of directors, is leading part of the team searching for investors, it was learnt.
Meanwhile, the bank said it would not whenever it commences operations go into regional banking according to CBN’s plan to phase out universal banking and also disclosed it would retain its name, although the logo may only be modified.

Savannah Bank was shut down in 2002 following claims by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that it was unable to meet some of its obligations and on October 20, 2006, a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that CBN’s closure of the bank was legal.

But last year, the bank regained its operating licence after another court ruling in its favour. On the present position of the bank, Obi Adiele, the bank’s temporary spokesman, told reporters in Abuja of ongoing efforts to quickly bring the bank back to business, and confirmed the interests of a lot of investors, considering the bank’s assets and particularly the gains of investing in an already established institution rather than floating an entirely new one.

He said any interests to be paid on the deposits would be determined by the CBN. “What we are saying is that all the people who deposited money in Savannah Bank will have their money back. We are going to do deposit verification exercise where depositors will be needed to present their driver’s licence or international passport and then with their account details, their accounts will be activated.

“…But may be if you have N2 million, we may not allow you take it at once because of the rush on the bank. We can now plan a proper exit strategy where gradually you have access to all your money. But clearly, no depositor will lose his or her money unlike some banks that went into liquidation.”

Speaking further on the plans on ground, he said, “Right now the bank is taking stock. We started the verification exercise in February 2010 and before the end of the year, we would have been through with most of the verification.

“Gradually, we are verifying our depositors so that we will now ascertain our level of indebtedness to them, then the next stage we will go into now will be to regularise their account by rolling out the branches in Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt, Enugu that is more like a regional roll-out.”

Sources: www.businessdayonline.com