Non-Performing Loans: 10 Banks Owed N1trn

The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mrs. Farida Waziri, on Thursday, stormed Lagos with 80 operatives, who are to go after the sacked management teams of three of the five banks that failed the recent Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) stress test and the debtors to all the five banks.

Waziri, according to the commission’s spokesperson, Mr. Femi Babafemi, is leading the operation which would be a replica of the one launched against the sacked bank chiefs and debtors to the five banks that had their leadership sacked by the apex bank in the first round of audit conducted in the sector.

The first five banks are Oceanic Bank, Intercontinental Bank, Fin Bank, Afribank and Union Bank, while the last five include Bank PHB, Spring Bank, Unity Bank, Equatorial Trust Bank and Wema Bank.

Only Wema and Unity Banks’ management teams were spared. At about 5.00 p.m. on Thursday, Nigerian Tribune gathered that Waziri was still holding the final meeting with the operatives before unleashing them on the sacked bank chiefs and the high-profile Nigerians that owe non-performing loans to the last five troubled banks.

The list of non-performing loan debtors released by the CBN contained names like Nigeria’s Ambassador to South Africa, General Buba Marwa; scion of the late M.K.O Abiola’s dynasty, Kola; the deported Vaswani brothers, billionaire businessmen, Femi Otedola and Aliko Dangote; Professor Pat Utomi; Chief Oyewole Fasawe; Chief Cletus Ibeto of Ibeto Cement, among others.

All the debtors to the five banks are said to owe non-performing loans of N451.6 billion. Debtors to the five banks earlier bailed out by the apex bank reportedly owed N737.6 billion.

The total non-performing loans owed the 10 troubled banks stand at N1.189.2 trillion. The EFCC said it had recovered N135 billion, leaving an outstanding of over N1 trillion.

It was learnt that the commission would be tougher on those on the new debtors’ list, given that many of them were also on the first list. Sources within the commission disclosed to the Nigerian Tribune that from Thursday night, the operatives would move in to arrest the sacked bank chiefs and the debtors.