CBN floats $1bn share offer for AFC
 The Deputy Governor, Financial Sector Surveillance, CBN, Mr.Tunde Lemo, who announced the timetable for the offer of $1bn ordinary shares of $1 each at a stockbrokers’ forum in Lagos on Monday, said the proposed investment bank would effectively commence operations in the first quarter of 2007.
To carry investors along, the CBN and its consultant, KPMG Professional Services, are to organise road shows in Lagos, Abuja, and Accra in Ghana and in the Gambian capital, Banjul.
The breakdown of the offer showed that proceeds of the exercise would be employed for the purpose of meeting pre-operational and start-up expenses and the corporation’s initial working capital requirements.
Although the authorised share capital of the bank is $2bn, Lemo said that further fund raising would be done by the management of the bank within the first six months of its operation.
The CBN chief explained that a chief executive would be appointed for the corporation before the end of the year, adding that the KPMG, saddled with the task of recruiting an internationally- recognised candidate for the position, was almost completing its assignment.
For its take-off, the AFC will enjoy an initial financial support of the CBN to the tune of $500m, an amount which Lemo said would be complemented heavily by private sector financing, adding that the aim of the promoters of the organisation was to leave the entire corporation in the hands of the private sector.
Lemo said that the lead role ascribed to the private sector was to avoid the administrative lethargy associated with big corporations like the African Development Bank, adding that the AFC was being set up to bridge the massive funding gap for the key economic sectors in Africa and the development of critical infrastructure to drive the continent’s economic growth.
He said that although the Nigerian economy had been well conducted in recent times, the growth expected in Africa had not been what was envisaged.
“The double digit goal seen in Asia has been eluding us in Africa because of the decay of our infrastructure,†Lemo stated, pointing out that while countries like Sierra Leone and Liberia lost their infrastructure to wars, Nigeria had not fared better because successive administrations had concentrated on the payment of salaries and other services at the expense of infrastructure.
The Head, Corporate Finance, KPMG, Mr. Kunle Elebute, who addressed the stockbrokers and management companies at the forum, described the AFC as a robust organisation that would conveniently achieve its objectives.
He said that the corporation, which would have its headquarters in Lagos, would be established by a charter and exempted from tax payment like other multinational organisations. - punch
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