Why we’re yet to recover N8bn loans – BoI

The Bank of Industry (BoI) has said that it is yet to recover the N8 billion loans given to some debtors due to litigations by some of the affected beneficiaries.

Daily Trust last week reported that the House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had launched an investigation into the N8bn unrecovered loan given to 53 delinquent debtors.

The committee’s investigation was sequel to the queries raised by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

But the Managing Director of BoI, Olalekan Pitan, said he had instituted a recovery mechanism after his assumption of office recently but that their albatross has been a number of court cases.

He said some of the debtors who did not have any case also dragged BoI to court, which was why they still found it difficult to recover large chunks of the money.

The MD said BoI had complied with the directive from the auditor general and published the names of the delinquent debtors in three national dailies.

“In addition, we have recovered some money, while some of the companies were reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for recovery.

“Some of them have subjected the recovery to litigation, while the property of some are on the verge of being sold,” he said.