The Chief Executive Officer of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe has sold off 28.86 million units of shares worth N297.82 million, representing 2.33 per cent of his total shares in the bank. 

The move has left investors apprehensive as to why the CEO would sell off huge units of share just after the bank announced that it has suspended its closing period which is the time between preparing the bank’s balance sheet and announcing to the public. 

Earlier in the year, January 8th the bank announced that it had suspended its closed period which it had earlier communicated on December 30th.

The closed period was supposed to last until January 29th. The transaction was said to be done through an insider dealing, which was filed by the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday that Herbert sold 55.6 million units of shares he held indirectly.

This means when one entity directly holds shares of another entity that owns shares of a third but different entity. In the capital market, when such a huge transaction is carried out on a public listed company by a member of the board there would be suspicions on the back to back sales of huge volume of shares. Investors also wonder why such is coming at a time where the bank’s balance sheet and its announcement to the public were delayed. 

The management of the Securities and Exchange Commission has announced in an earlier report their plan on the partnership with Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) to boost investors’ confidence in the Nigerian capital market space, to encourage potential investors in public companies.

 The aim is to ensure they can count on the regulators on issues like public companies’ compliance to publishing their financial year report when due, to ensure portfolios are safe and can be retrieved when needed.