Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday announced the take over of the Board and management of Skye Bank Plc over liquidity issues.

CBN said the Bank has failed to meet the regulator’s minimum key liquidity and capital adequacy ratios.

Godwin Emefiele, the Governor of CBN who announced the take over in Lagos also announced a new board and management for the bank following the resignation of the Chairman, Chief Tunde Ayeni, and Management Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo.

Emefiele said the Ayeni led board and management had failed to improve the liquidity of the bank despite persistent warning from the CBN.

Emefiele: announces sack of management of Skye BanK

The new board of the Skye Bank is headed Alhaji MK Ahmad as the chairman, while Tokunbo Abiru is the new MD/CEO.

All the non-executive directors and two longest-serving directors of Skye Bank were also sacked.

Emefiele however insisted that Skye Bank is not in distress in spite of the measures taken by CBN.

He therefore appealed to customers of the bank to remain calm.

“I maintain that Skye Bank is not in distress. We have only taken this unavoidable decision to ensure that depositors’ funds are not eroded,” he said.

Oguntayo, who led Skye Bank to acquire nationalised lender Mainstreet Bank in 2014, resigned before the Central Bank announcement.

Skye Bank is believed to be carrying a non performing loan portfolio of N700 billion, mainly due to an over-exposure in the oil and gas sector.

CBN gave three commercial banks until June 2016 to recapitalise after they failed to hit a minimum capital adequacy rate of 10 percent last year.

Analysts said the take over of Skye Bank may indicate a wider systemic risk in the industry.