Chief Arthur Eze
Genesis
Electricity Limited, a firm in which a business mogul, Prince Arthur
Eze, is listed among its directors, is said to owe Wema Bank Plc the sum
of N136.93m, according to the list of delinquent debtors published by
the bank on Friday (today).
Before Wema Bank, 16 other banks had
published their lists of loan defaulters in line with the Central Bank
of Nigeria-initiated name and shame campaign against bank loan
defaulters that commenced on Monday.
The Wema Bank list has 28 names with
S.K. Ajayi Nigeria Limited, BSS Steel Rolling Mill Limited and J.A.
Akinola Printing Works Limited occupying the first three positions with
N308.73m, N251.13m and N166m NPL figures, respectively.
Eze’s
Genesis Electricity occupies the fourth position. Other two directors
of the company listed along with the business man are Mr. Akinwole
Omoboriowo and Mr. Achibiri Felix.
Some of the other names on the list are
Great Amason Bearing Limited, which allegedly owes N76.35m; Alala
Engineering Company Limited, N64.69m; Akhanaton Holdings Limited,
N44.22m; and Popsony Petroleum Ventures, N29.06m.
The 28 listed companies owe the bank a combined sum of N1.26bn.
Apart from Wema, other lenders that have
so far published their debtors’ lists are Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty
Trust Bank Plc, Union Bank Plc, Sterling Bank Plc, Skye Bank Plc,
Fidelity Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Heritage Bank Limited and
Enterprise Bank Limited.
The others are First Bank of Nigeria
Limited, Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc and Unity Bank Plc, First
City Monument Bank, Ecobank Nigeria and United Bank for Africa Plc.
Standard Chartered Bank and Keystone Bank are expected to release their lists next week.
The CBN had on April 22, 2015 directed
the banks, discount houses and the Asset Management Corporation of
Nigeria to publish the lists of their delinquent debtors from August 1.
They are to publish the names in at least three national newspapers on a quarterly basis.
In line with the directive, the banks had given the chronic debtors a three-month grace period, which expired on July 31.
A significant number of the debtors have
been renegotiating with the lenders, while others are contesting the
figures attributed to them. A few others have denied being directors of
the delinquent debtor firms.
The Director, Banking Supervision, CBN,
Mrs. ‘Tokunbo Martins, had in a circular on April 22, said, “In order to
ensure that the industry NPL ratio does not exceed the prudential limit
of five per cent, and to improve the credit culture in the banking
industry, banks and discount houses are directed to observe prudent
credit underwriting and monitoring standards.”
The delinquent debtors are those whose
accounts have been classified lost and include the persons, entities,
directors, subsidiaries and other related parties, according to the
central bank.
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