The Central Bank of Nigeria has made good its promise to debit accounts of defaulters under its development finance intervention programmes.
The director of development finance at the CBN, Yusuf Yila stated on Wednesday, September 28 after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting in Abuja that the apex bank had begun to debit accounts often defaulters.
Yila said the apex bank had specifically moved against states and farmers who benefitted from its interventions.
The Anchor Borrowers Programme and the Commercial Agric Credit (CAC) are part of the bank’s programmes.
He hinted that the state governments’ monthly federation accounts allocation accruals were being debited.
The director said every person or state that took a loan under the Anchor Borrowers Programme would pay.
Yila said: “We have their BVN. These persons are smallholder farmers who received funds for farming from state government via the Anchor Borrowers programme but have yet to pay back.”
Reports say Yila also indicated during his speech that the ABP loan repayment was very encouraging, like the CAC, which he said was excellent.
According to Yila, under the ABP, the apex bank disbursed about N1 trillion but recovered N400 billion, and under the CAC, the bank gave out about N800 billion and recovered N700 billion.
● No mercy for defaulters
He said: “We have started recovering loans from state governments. We have been doing a loan workout programme with them, and we are directly debiting their monthly FAAC accruals for the loans.
“If a state government has taken N1 billion and is already in default, over six months, we debit them N150 million every month. So, we’ve started that programme.”
“So, every single loan that has been given out through any of our intervention programmes must be paid back.”
The CBN top shot said that banks had jettisoned sentiments and were committed to collecting the debts owed.
However, he said the banks were not showing mercy in recovery.
“At the development finance department, we have begun to recover the loans.
“To ensure that these loans are fully recovered, the Central Bank of Nigeria has solicited the assistance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
“We are working with the EFCC. The CBN governor has approved the collaboration with the EFCC on loan recoveries.”
Recall that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had concluded on directly deducting from the bank accounts of loan defaulters under the Anchor Borrower Programme (ABP).
Celsus Agla, Senior Manager of the CBN’s Development Finance Office in Port-Harcourt, made the announcement on Thursday during a meeting with maize farmers and other stakeholders.
THISDAY reports Agla to have said that some farmers who obtained loans through the Anchor Borrower Program had ignored repayment requests, and some had described the loan as a grant, forgetting that their bank verification number was included when they applied. (Legit.ng with slight edits to headline)
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