The Bank of Industry (BOI) is obviously not happy with no fewer than 24 companies which it said has been diverting loans they obtained from the bank for acquisition of plant and machinery to other ventures outside the agreement they signed with the bank.
The bank’s Managing Director, Rasheed Olaoluwa who made this known today at the induction of 10 customers who made it into the bank’s hall of fame, said that the bank has decided to name and shame these bad customers, whose names will be placed on a blacklist of loan defaulters. The move, according to him, will help other banks in the country to identify business people who have no respect for integrity and purpose
“Unfortunately, there are two sides of a coin. Just as we have had exemplary customers, we have also had the very bad and difficult ones. Some of these customers provided cloned title documents, thus committing outright frauds.
“In addition to naming these companies, we have taken the additional step of also unveiling their directors and shareholders, such that other leading institutions and credit bureaus are sufficiently put on notice.
“A total of 24 companies have been so identified, and they will henceforth experience the ignominy of belonging to our hall of shame. Their names have also been published on our website.”
According to him, the 10 companies to be inducted into the hall of fame obtained long-term credit facilities from the bank at least twice and have fully repaid the loans as and when due, maintaining that they have proven that integrity is not a function of size nor of the business environment.
“They have shown considerable honour and character that we commend and applaud. We do not blacklist just because we want to, we blacklist those that have no respect for integrity and not worthy of doing credible business with. As a bank, our hope and prayer is that we increase the number of customers in the hall of fame and minimize the blacklist, “he said.
He said it was against this background that the BOI decided to introduce a scheme to honour some of its customers who have shown excellent performance by fully repaying the loans granted to them by BOI as and when due.
“Our Board of Directors has approved the establishment of a hall of fame into which exemplary and outstanding customers, big and small, shall be inducted.
“We, development banks, derive our funding, not from millions of depositors but from government funding, which is provided from government resources that are limited, finite and subject to competing demands,” he stressed.
Olaoluwa pointed out that the effect of any loan default is more severe, with certain socio-economic consequences which are capable of defeating government’s laudable objectives of financing the strategic sectors of the economy, promoting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and creating jobs for Nigerians.
“When customers default on their loans, they deprive other Nigerian businesses of the much needed access to finance.” [myad]
