General News
Banks’ Chiefs, Others Carry Out Insider Abuses- CBN
Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has expressed the apex bank’s dismay over the level of corporate governance abuses perpetrated by the top echelon in banks, and warned that the regulator would punish offenders.
He spoke at this year’s edition of the CBN-Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC) Continuous Education Programme for Directors of Banks and Other Financial Institutions.
Emefiele, who spoke on the theme: “The Next Level of Corporate Governance Practice”, said fit and proper persons should be appointed into the boards of banks, adding that corporate governance is undoubtedly an essential pillar in financial system stability.
He said the failure of banks’ boards in carrying out their oversight functions by checking management excessive risk taking, conflict of interest, undue concentration on short term gains and excessive executive compensation fundamentally affect the ability of financial institutions to meet their core mandates.
To Emefiele, a safe and sound financial system is dependent on the quality of corporate governance practices, which in turn depends on the quality of the board of directors and their ability to discharge their responsibilities honourably.
The CBN boss directed independent bank directors to rise up to their responsibilities and be the conscience of their institutions in the interest of depositors and minority shareholders. “Independent directors do not need to be friends of the managing directors. They can’t fire you but the CBN can remove you if you don’t do your job well,” he said.
Emefiele said banking needed independent directors who “are bold, sound and experienced to do what we want them to do.”
Emefiele said the CBN will get tougher on insider related loans, adding that many bank chiefs and executive directors borrow from the banks at very low interest rates.
He said banks are not owned by shareholders who he said were simply used by God to establish them. He said depositors funds are 10 times higher than shareholders’ funds, hence the interest of the depositors should be paramount. “A bank managing director who feels he set up the bank has only been used by God to set up such bank. The real owners of the banks are depositors,” he said.
In Emefiele’s view, even though shareholders are important to banking, the most important stakeholders are the depositors. “It is important for us to ensure we all protect them. That is why in the programme, we said that independent directors must remain independent and perform their roles and responsibilities, no matter how tough it is. They have to look at insiders who are shareholders and tell them what is good and what is not right. Yes, we are going tough because it is a dynamic environment and we will continue to take drastic actions against that insider abuse,” he said.
He spoke of a bank with 4.5 million depositors that the CBN is monitoring but has decided the lender will not be allowed to go down.
“If we allow the bank to go down, how can we explain to the 4.5 million customers that their money is lost? The impact of such closure on the economy will be tough,” the CBN boss said.
To him, running an efficient and sound bank is all about strong governance, adding that weak governance ensues when shareholders employ inexperienced or unenlightened people to run their banks.
“Weak governance will ensure that liquidity position in banks is eroded. We want to make sure that banks remain strong by ensuring that strong governance exists. It is also about checking your conscience to tell yourself, have you performed your role diligently, that you are not only serving your own interest as shareholders but also serving the interest of larger stakeholders? These are some of the issues we will be looking at going forward because those depositors are very important,” he added.
”It encompasses the protection of minority shareholders, disclosure provisions, the role and structure of the board, complexity on the definition of related parties, compensation structures and much more. Therefore weak corporate governance can undermine financial stability by heightening vulnerability of financial institutions to external shocks,” he said.
He said institutions with sound corporate governance and effective board oversights are more resilient to shocks and operate more profitably. “Given the crucial financial intermediation role which banks and other financial institutions play in the economy, corporate governance for financial institutions is, arguably, of great importance in contrast to governance in non-financial companies,” he said.
He said that prior to the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2009, it was taken for granted that the banking sector in Nigeria was safe and sound. However, this trust proved to be misplaced as it was realised that none of the 25 banks that scaled the CBN consolidation exercise was immuned from failure if they operated in a poor corporate governance environment.
Accordingly, the 2014 CBN Code of Corporate Governance for Banks and Discount Houses (an improvement on the 2006 Code) was one of many responses to the industry’s post-consolidation corporate governance challenges arising largely from the integration processes. The mass enlightenment on corporate governance in the industry today could very well be attributed to the issuance of the CBN Code. The implementation of the Code largely addressed ineffective board oversights; overbearing influences of chairmen on MDs/CEOs; weak internal controls and prolonged tenure on the board amongst other anomalies.
“While appreciable momentum had been attained in corporate governance practices in the Nigerian Banking Industry, we need not rest on our oars as vulnerabilities are still evident. The recent economic recession has shown that the financial industry still harbours weaknesses in governance, exemplified by instances of unclear rendition of returns, corporate governance abuses, such as unreported losses, huge exit packages for directors, insider non-performing loans, over-domineering executive management, contravention of regulatory/prudential guidelines and lending limits, poorly appraised credits and weakening of shareholders’ funds among others. Overall, the huge challenge of ‘key-man’ risk abound in our industry,” Emefiele said.
Emefiele stressed that ensuring good governance is a responsibility of all stakeholders.
Anonymous Nigeria, hacktivism, known for launching coordinated cyberattacks and protests in support of socio-political movements, has threatened to leak stolen South African government data unless its demands were met.
The group, called for the department to stop xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, or it will expose the data.
“They call themselves correctional services, but they can’t correct the citizens. What a shame,” the group said in its Telegram channel, MyBroadband reported.
“They killed a lot of Nigerians while the so-called correctional services watched and the ministry of justice.”
It is immediately know if Anonymous Nigeria is affiliated to Nullsec Nigeria.
But in a post on a hacker forum, Nullsec Nigeria included a link showcasing an example of data stolen from the department.
It included two bid invitation notices, bid results, a copy of the bids received, and a notice of a bid awarded in various formats.
“We’ll expose all your evil deeds for the world to see, unless this attack stops. But if not, we’ll leak everything they got,” Nullsec Nigeria said.
“Unless the government of South Africa ends these xenophobic attacks on Nigeria, we’ll expose everything about you, your evil deeds will be exposed, and the world shall know.”
MyBroadband asked the Department of Correctional Services about the claimed breach and Nullsec Nigeria’s demands, but it did not immediately respond to our questions.
Nullsec Nigeria also claimed responsibility for breaching several other entities in South Africa, while responding to an X post about its OpSouthAfrica campaign in its Telegram channel.
“I wanna express something here. I saw a report on the #OpSouthAfrica hack by Nullsec Nigeria, but it was stolen by another person,” it said. “Tag the real breachers next time.”
In a separate thread on the hacker forum, Nullsec Nigeria also claimed responsibility for breaching the Ephraim Mogale Local Municipality’s systems.
It claimed to have hacked the local government’s website and threatened to expose “everything you got for others to see how heartless you are. You killed mothers, brothers, students.”
Nullsec Nigeria said the breach and the threats were in response to the xenophobic attacks on and killing of Nigerians and the South African government’s supposed silence on the issue.
“These attacks are still going on in the dark, and we’ll expose them all. If the South African government doesn’t act first, the whole of South Africa will suffer,” it said.
“This is just a wave. These documents are about 11GB, but we decided to pull just this one.”
Its post included two images: one for a public hearing and another, a handwritten tender document for the appointment of an insurance service provider.
It also included a link to several other documents, including an old annual report, council resolutions, financial statements, and various other notices.
The Nigerian Government recently announced plans to bring citizens back to the country from South Africa after violent protests over foreign nationals in the country erupted earlier in May.
President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the protests and criminal acts directed at foreign nationals in his From the Desk of The President weekly newsletter on 11 May 2026.
He emphasised the recent demonstrations and attacks did not represent the views of the South African people, nor the government’s policy.
“These are the acts of opportunists who are exploiting the legitimate grievances, particularly those of the poor, under the false guise of ‘community activism’,” The President said.
“Some of these people are assuming functions that only state officials are permitted to perform, including stopping people to check identification and conducting searches of private property.”
He added that such lawlessness would not be tolerated, regardless of who the perpetrators or victims were.
World Bank has restricted comments on its Instagram page after thousands of Nigerians flooded the platform begging them to stop lending money to Nigeria.
The protest erupted after reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is seeking a fresh $1.25 billion dollar loan for approval on June 26.
Some Nigerians asked the World Bank to provide more details about the purpose of the loan and how the funds would be managed.
Others said the country should reduce dependence on foreign loans and focus on improving local revenue.
The federal government has continued to defend its borrowing plans.
Officials say the funds will support economic reforms, development projects and efforts to strengthen the economy.
Nigeria remains one of the major borrowers from the World Bank in Africa, with different administrations securing loans over the years for infrastructure, social programmes and economic support.
The Lagos State Government plans to establish a Cybersecurity Operations Centre to strengthen protection of government systems, digital services and citizen data amid rising cyber threats linked to the city’s expanding digital economy.
Tunbosun Alake, Lagos commissioner for innovation, science and technology, said the centre would help secure the infrastructure supporting online payments, e-government services, cloud platforms and technology-driven business operations across the state.
According to Alake, the facility will monitor, detect and respond to cyber threats targeting government networks, digital transactions and sensitive public data.
The move comes as Lagos accelerates its smart city agenda through investments in broadband infrastructure, digital identity systems and automated public services.
Alake said Lagos had already deployed 109 Data Protection Officers across Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which he described as the highest number among Nigerian states, to strengthen compliance with data protection regulations.
Alongside the proposed cybersecurity centre, the state also launched the Lagos Campus Network Upgrade project aimed at improving digital infrastructure within the public sector.
The upgrade is expected to improve network performance, automate internal government processes and enhance digital engagement with residents. The cybersecurity initiative follows the release of Lagos State’s cybersecurity guidelines in April.
The framework recommends measures including multi-factor authentication, vulnerability testing, encrypted backups and tighter endpoint security controls.
The guidelines align with Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act 2024, the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and the National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy 2021.
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