(L-R) SUnny Kuku, chairman, Ecobank Nigeria Plc; ferdinand Alaraba, chairman, UBA and Bank Directors Association of Nigeria (BDAN); Foluke Abdulrazak, financial secretary, BDAN and Steve Omojafor, non-executive director, Zenith Bank; at the cocktail organised for banks' directors by BDAN in Lagos recently.

Fidelity Bank Plc is making appreciable progress in its acquisition moves for one of the country’s first generation banks now managed by Central Bank of Nigeria-appointed interim management, top financial sector officials have revealed.
BusinessWorld Intelligence can also now reveal that Fidelity Bank Plc has gone through the processes that any diligent investor in any of the bailed-out banks needs to complete even with the acknowledgement of the apex bank. Our Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sources said the moves have been progressive and have been in line with the guideline for the acquisition of any of the banks as prescribed by the apex bank.
Efforts to confirm the stage of the transaction with Fidelity Bank could not yield any result as the principal officers of the bank are evasive. But there were strong indications within the target bailed-out bank that the Fidelity Bank intention is being gradually nurtured by the management as the only way to quickly pull the bank out of the wood.
The bailed-out bank acquisition is believed to have caught the fancy of Fidelity Bank due to the fact that it has a business model that is akin to what Fidelity Bank has doing before the downturn and had positioned its major business offices to the areas Fidelity Bank considers key to its growth plans. The two are believed to be sharing the same business attitude and management orientation.
However, there are indications that Ecobank Nigeria whose head office is a shout away from that of Fidelity Bank is in frantic chase for the same bank. CBN sources indicate that one of the banks is deeper in the negotiations than the other and that the two investors have shown diligent commitment to the deal.
The staff of the bailed-out bank told BusinessWorld that the Fidelity Bank interest is no more news to them as they have been involved in the efforts to provide the desired information to them. They are however worried as to whether the choice of Fidelity is based on the reality on the ground and not of any alliance built on past associations.
The move, BusinessWorld can reveal, has been considered by the apex bank as one of the very few genuine moves by any Nigerian bank for the acquisition of the bailed-out banks. There are strong indications that this may favourably impact on the price of  Fidelity Bank shares which have been among the most heavily traded stocks in the stock market since the last one year. The bank has a total asset base of N436 billion and shareholders fund of N130.69 billion.