The Senate has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to recover the sum of N1.079 trillion given as loans to farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Loans scheme.
The N1.079 trillion given as loans to farmers under the Anchor Borrowers Programme was part of the N30 trillion given as an overdraft to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration by the CBN from 2015 to 2023.
The chairman of the Senate’s ad-hoc committee probing the N30trillion overdraft to the federal government during ex-President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, Senator Jibrin Isah (APC – Kogi East), directed the CBN to debit commercial banks that handled the disbursement of the loan from the source.
Senator Isah gave the directive at an investigative hearing organized by the committee during the week following explanations by CBN officials led by the Deputy Governor of Corporate Services, Bala Bello, on poor recovery of the loan.
Speaking to reporters, Isah said: “They defaulted and why do they default. You can’t restructure the loan forever. You can go after the collateral, you must up your games, we need to recover these monies. We can’t continue to restructure forever.
“We are talking about N358 billion that hasn’t been repaid and is at the risk of default.
“For those that have defaulted, I suggest that we put a peg on the interest. Our focus should be on the principal. On that, those loans must have been guaranteed by the banks. I want to believe that those banks must have covered their backs through collateral.
“I am sure no bank will grant loans without collateral. They must open up to you. We have the power to go through the whole hog by debiting them at source. We can do that, let them go to Court.”
The CBN Deputy Governor had in his explanations to the committee on the outstanding loans lamented the lack of supervision by the immediate past management of the CBN under its erstwhile Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
He told the ad-hoc committee that the new management of the apex bank was doing everything possible to recover outstanding loans.
Bello said: “On our own part, I want to tell you that the new management of CBN has given us a mandate to get the money back. We are under a responsibility to recover this money, they belong to taxpayers.
“It saddens my heart to answer questions on things we don’t know. But we inherit both assets and liabilities. Things could have been done better.”
On the N30trillion Ways and Means, Senator Isah who is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Customs, expressed disappointment that the CBN Act was observed in breach by its immediate past Governor, Godwin Emefiele.
He noted that the erstwhile CBN boss unilaterally approved loans without recourse to the statutory approving authority, the Committee of Governors.
“Under the Ways and Means, the Committee of Governors should have been the approving authority. But the CBN Governor did not do that, he unilaterally approved.
“We also want to know the total figure of the Ways and Means because what we have here, the figure didn’t add up. We want to know who got what,” he said.