Ademola Adebise is under Pressure

Wema Bank in general and its MD/CEO, Ademola Adebise in particular, have come under pressure from their customers for recent tidings regarding the bank’s liquidity status. With fears regarding Nigeria’s financial future, this is not a good time for any bank to lose the trust of its customers. With Wema Bank as an old and generational Nigerian bank, the stakes are even higher.

No banker understands the risks involved in losing the trust of shareholders and depositors as Wema Bank’s Ademola Adebise. He emerged as the bank’s MD/CEO in the last quarter of 2018 after his prior position (which he held for three months) as acting MD and Deputy MD (which he held for about a year and a half). After labouring all that time, the recent allegation that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has Wema Bank under surveillance has dealt a heavy blow to Adebise.

The allegation is recent and announced that Wema Bank is doing remarkably poorly compared to other Nigerian banks. In economic speak, the bank’s liquidity ratio has fallen so far from the mark that doubling the last reported ratio (14.54%) would do nothing to reach the requisite benchmark of 30%. Meanwhile, Wema’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (a measure of Wema’s available capital against risks associated with asset loss and liabilities) was also reported as unimpressive, also falling short of the benchmark. Essentially, the report stated that Wema might just fall off the counter of credible and operational Nigerian banks.

Ademola Adebise has had to defend the performance of Wema Bank against these reports. He explained that the seeming underperformance of Wema Bank as featured in the report is an outlier, the exception rather than the normal. Furthermore, he maintained that the poor metrics reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lockdown and consequent disruption of banking. Thus, he stated, Wema Bank is still standing strong, and there is no need for panic.
Regardless, folks are still panicky. The onus is on Ademola Adebise again to prove the resilience of Wema Bank with an outstanding performance at the end of the first quarter of 2021. No pressure, indeed.