CBN begins deductions from states, farmers’ accounts to recover outstanding loans

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) says it has commenced deductions from accounts of defaulters under its development finance interventions to recover outstanding loans.

Yusuf Yila, director, development finance of the CBN, said this during a post-Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) in Abuja on Wednesday.

Yila said the apex bank is determined to recover loans from states and farmers who were beneficiaries of any of its interventions.

Although he did not mention the debtor states, Yila said state governments’ monthly federation account allocation committee (FAAC) accruals are already being debited directly every month. 

This deduction, he said, will last six months.

According to him, the Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) and Commercial Agric Credit (CAC) are part of the intervention programmes.

“Every person(s) or state that took that loan (ABP) is going to pay. We have their BVN,” he said.

“These persons are smallholder farmers, who received funds for farming from state governments via the ABP, but have yet to pay them back.”

The CBN director further said the apex bank has started making plans to work with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to ensure that the loans were recovered.

Yila said while the ABP loan repayments were particularly low, CAC was almost excellent.

“Under the ABP, the CBN gave out about N1 trillion but recovered only N400 billion. But under the CAC, the bank lent out about N800 billion and recovered N700 billion,” he added.

“We have started recovering loans from state governments. We have been doing a loan workout programme with them, and we are debiting their monthly FAAC accruals directly for the loans.

“If a state government has taken N1 billion and is already in default, over six months, we debit them N150 million every month. So, we’ve started that programme.

“So, every single loan that has been given out through any of our intervention programmes must be paid back.

“There is absolutely no mercy. We have started; we are in recovery mode. At the development finance department, we have begun to recover the loans.

“There is the ABP which is a primary consumption element of our interventions. We lent out N1 trillion for the ABP, of which we have gotten over N400 billion back.

“Every single person or state that took that loan (ABP) is going to pay. We have their BVN. In fact, we have started implementing the Global Standing Instruction (GSI).

“We will continue to pull the account in the bank that they lent to or whichever bank that they have. Anytime we see money in that account, we will recover it.

“We are working with the EFCC. The CBN governor has approved the collaboration with the EFCC on loan recoveries.”

Yila also said that credit facilities extended to businesses and individuals have not performed poorly, adding that out of the N9 trillion intervention fund to instigate economic growth, about N5 trillion is still under moratorium