AUDITORS REPORT
Report on the financial statements

We have audited the accompanying consolidated financial statements of Oceanic Bank International Plc (“the Bank”) and its subsidiaries (together “the Group”) which comprise the consolidated balance sheet as of 30 September 2007 and the consolidated profit and loss account and consolidated cash flow statement for the year then ended and a statement of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.   

Directors’ responsibility for the financial statements

The directors are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with Nigerian Statements of Accounting Standards and with the requirements of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990 and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 1991. This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies; and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.

Auditor’s responsibility

Our responsibility is to express an independent opinion on the financial statements based on our audit.  We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing.  Those standards require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform our audit to obtain reasonable assurance that the financial statements are free from material misstatement.

An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements.  The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgement, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error.  In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the entity’s preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the company’s internal control.  An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by the directors, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements.

We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. 

Opinion

In our opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the state of the financial affairs of the Bank and Group as of 30 September 2007 and of their profits and cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Nigerian Statements of Accounting Standards, the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990 and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 1991.

Report on other legal and regulatory requirements

The Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990 and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 1991 require that in carrying out our audit we consider and report to you on the following matters.  We confirm that:

we have obtained all the information and explanations which to the best of our knowledge and belief were necessary for the purposes of our audit;

in our opinion proper books of account have been kept, so far as appears from our examination of those books; and

the Bank’s balance sheet and profit and loss account are in agreement with the books of account;

Related party transactions and balances are disclosed in Note 32 to the financial statements in accordance with the Central Bank of Nigeria Circular BSD/1/2004.

As stated in the Note 39 to the financial statements, the Bank contravened certain sections of the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act 1991. The penalties levied thereon have been paid.

To the best of our information, the Bank has complied with the requirements of the relevant circulars issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.