<<Print>>

The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has approved the sale of the International Commercial Bank (ICB) financial group holdings to First Bank of Nigeria (FBN). By the terms of the approval, FBN is required to offload at 40 percent of the shares to Ghanaians through private placement or the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). Per the agreement, at least 25 percent of the shares should be offloaded by 31st December, 2014 and the remainder not later than 31st December, 2016. FBN has also acquired the subsidiaries of ICB Financial Group Holdings AG in The Gambia, Guinea, Senegal and Sierra-Leone. First Bank is the first major financial institution founded in Nigeria. The bank is the largest lender in the nation while most banks gather funds from consumers and loan it out to large corporations. At the end of September 2011, the bank had assets totaling approximately US$18.6 billion with its profit after tax for the nine months ending 30 September 2011 approximately totaling US$270.2 million. First Bank of Nigeria maintains a subsidiary I the United Kingdom, FBN Bank (UK), which has a branch in Paris. The bank also has representative offices in South Africa and China.