Godwin Emefiele, CBN Governor

Speculations surrounding the ownership of Titan Trust Bank which acquired Union Bank has continue to stir up dust in every imaginable quarter like a whirlwind with the mentioning of Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele as the owner of the new financial institution and has allegedly put it in the hands of his cronies to run.
Titan Bank, with only two active offices in Lagos, was established in December 2018, and started operating fully as a commercial national bank after obtaining its license in April 2019.​
Titan Trust Bank’s sudden rise to the point of acquiring Union Bank Plc, a massive banking brand with a whopping significantly large asset size of about $4.9 billion (N2.59 trillion) according to its FY 2021 audited financial statements, still remains a mystery but from all indication Emefiele is believe to be the owner of the bank.
On June 6 2022, the African Export Import Ban (Afreximbank) announced that it had disbursed the sum of $300 million to help complement the total amount needed by Titan Trust Bank to finalise the acquisition of Union Bank. Afreximbank noted that the said fund was disbursed under its Intra-African Investment Financing Facility.
But from all calculations, it appears as if all the companies involved in acquisition have not exactly disclosed how much it had actually cost Titan Trust to acquire Union Bank. As we pointed out earlier, Union Bank had a total asset value of $4.9 billion as of December 2021.
So, even with the $300 million from Afreximbank, a lot more money would have still been needed to facilitate the deal. And it’s most likely that Titan Trust secured funding from other sources besides Afreximbank which it deliberately refused to mention.
Emefiele, a former GMD/CEO of Zenith Bank is speculated to either onw the new outfit or co-own with Jim Ovia, the founder and chairman of Zenith Bank Plc. Instructively, many of the executive directors of TTB were former Zenith Bank staff. Dr. Adaeze Udensi was a former General Manager at Zenith where she put in over 16years while Stella Nwihim, TTB’s Head of Human Resources, held key positions in Zenith bank before joining UBA Plc.
TTB’s Head of Compliance, Ademola Ajayi, played a key role in setting up the compliance department in Zenith Bank while Chinenyeoke Uga, Chief Risk Officer, was the head of the Credit Risk Appraisal at Zenith Bank, responsible for the appraisal of all credit requests bank-wide (including branches in Nigeria and its foreign subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and the China Representative Office).
There are also strong indications that the CBN Governor who is also allegedly among the highest shareholders in Union Bank Plc may have played major role in the acquisition of the bank’s shares by TTB.
But sources close to the CBN governor say these indicators are not enough reasons to appropriate the ownership of TTB to him.
Emefiele’s camp has continued to deny his participation with Titan Trust, but their evasive denial without adequate explanation is reminiscent of a similar situation that occurred when the CBN Governor’s desire to run for President in 2023 was exposed.