No fewer than 10 companies, according to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, have defaulted in the submission of their annual audit report for 2017, which had a deadline of March 31, 2018.
The companies are First Bank Nigeria Holdings, Fidelity Bank, Union Bank, Diamond Bank, Abbey Mortgage Bank, International Breweries, Guinea Insurance, Lafarge Africa Plc, Mutual Benefits and Linkage Assurance Plc.
Reacting to the missed deadlines, however, three of the affected companies have said that it was not for lack of efforts on their part to beat the NSE deadline.
According to Seye Kosoko, company secretary of First Bank, “the reason for the delay is purely due to the peculiarity of FBNH’s group structure”.
He said: “FBNH has subsidiary companies operating in the banking and insurance sectors as well as the capital market, all with a common financial year end of December 31 alongside the holding company.”
The bank said that as a result of this, the subsidiaries have to audit their statements and get the necessary approval from respective regulators before they can be submitted to the NSE.
Linkage Assurance Plc., it was gathered, could not meet the NSE deadline because approval from the National Insurance Commission which is its primary regulator, could not be secured.
According to International Breweries, which filed its statement April 4, 2018, the setback was as a result of account consolidation of newly merged entities namely; Pabod Breweries and Intafact Beverages, with that of the company.
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