Banks To Publish Names Of Serial Debtors Aug.1

Emefiele

The Bankers’ Committee yesterday said total bank credit now stands at between N13 trillion and N14 trillion, adding that three per cent of this huge credit is not performing.

Addressing reporters in Abuja yesterday at the end of the Bankers’ Committee meeting,  Director,  Banking Supervision, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mrs Tokunbo Martins, said: “Total bank credit stands at between N13 trillion to N14 trillion; of this amount, about three per cent of that (N390 billion) is not performing. This means that the industry is very sound.”

According to her, industry threshold should not exceed five per cent, and since the bad debts are only three per cent of the total banking sector credit, the industry “is stable and the CBN is satisfied with that since bad debts have not crossed the threshold set.”

The CBN director said she was aware that over 70 projects have so far been financed from the N220 billion MSME fund but that she does not have the details of banks that are not participating.

The Nation reports:

Martins warned serial debtors that “the date is drawing close to publish names of serial debtors, by 1st August, banks will publish names of debtors and we urge debtors to pay up. “Also speaking, the Chief Executive Officer, United Bank of Africa (UBA) Mr. Philip Oduoza said 12,500 customers have so far enrolled under the Bank Verification Number (BVN) exercise which will end in a few weeks’ time. He said though this is encouraging, there is still need to do more to close the gap before the deadline of June 30th this year.

Oduoza warned that in the event that bank customers do not enroll they may lose certain banking services.

Oduoza said:  “We have seen substantial enrollment to enable the unique bank identity which the BVN represents, customers who fail to enroll by 30th of June may not be able to enjoy banking services like getting credits, access to forex, their internet banking might be shut down.”

He urged bank customers to enroll “because it carries you through the entire banking system.”

Oduoza also said a “lot of progress has been made with regard to the cashless policy in the six pilot states and because of the success recorded, we are thinking of going nationwide by end-third quarter of this year.”

Chief Executive Officer, ECOBANK, Mr. Jubril Aku said the Bankers Committee has reviewed all the foreign exchange activities and looked at the supply side of forex activities and they were optimistic that both the “CBN and banks will meet legitimate demands.”

He said the Bankers Committee was satisfied with the stability attained in the system and denied claims of speculation in the foreign exchange (forex) market, “because the open position limit of banks is very tiny. The market remains stable as every demand that has come in has been met and any demand not met has not come into the system.”