Report on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying financial statements of Skye Bank Plc, which comprise the balance sheet as at September 30, 2006, and the profit and loss account and statement of cash flows for the period then ended set out on pages 20 to 22, and a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes set out on pages 15 to 19 and 23 to 51 respectively.

Management's Responsibility for the Financial Statements
The Bank's directors are responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these financial statements in accordance with the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAP C20 LFN 2004, Nigerian Statements of Accounting Standards and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, CAP B3 LFN 2004. This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free of 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 opinion on these 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 the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements are free of 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 judgment, 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 entity's internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by management, 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 audit opinion. 

Opinion
In our opinion the financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of Skye Bank Plc as of September 30, 2006, and of its financial performance and its cash flows for the period then ended in accordance with Nigerian Accounting Standards and comply with the Companies and Allied Matters Act, CAP C20 LFN 2004 and the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, CAP B3 LFN 2004.

Report on Compliance with Banking Regulations
We confirm that our examination of loans and advances was carried out in accordance with the Prudential Guidelines for licensed banks issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Related party transactions and balances are disclosed in Note 34 to the financial statements in accordance with Central Bank of Nigeria Circular BSD/1/2004.

Contraventions
As stated in note 37 to the financial statements, the bank contravened certain circulars of the Central Bank of Nigeria.  

Ernst & Young
Chartered Accountants
Lagos, Nigeria

Akintola Williams Deloitte
Chartered Accountants
Lagos, Nigeria