Cassava Association Condemns BoI Loan Recovery Tactics

Members of the National Cassava Processors and Marketers Association (NCAPMA) have condemned the methods used by officials of the Bank of Industry (BoI), in a bid to recover facilities extended to them in respect of the federal government’s Cassava Bread Policy.

The facilities, which the officials of BoI seek to recover, were extended to members of the association by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and it is being administered by the Bank.

When the issue of default came up, the association wrote to the Managing Director of the Bank on July 27, last year to request status report on the level of indebtedness of members.

The association’s letter of July, titled the “Status Report on BoI Facilities with NCAPMA Members”, referred to a meeting both parties held with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbe in Abuja on Friday 2nd of July, 2016, during which it requested that the BoI should provide details reports on the following: The status report on the upgraded term loan/ grants and the status report on the working capital loan disbursed to its members.

“We shall appreciate timely response to these requests as this shall form the basis (time) for a planned national meeting of the association,” said NCAPMA in the letter.

However, the association said, in another letter last month to the Managing Director of BoI that the Bank did not respond to the letter, saying “your field officers have continued to put severe pressures on our members to liquidate the facilities provided by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources but being managed by your Bank.”

The association in the letter signed by its Chairman, Engineer Ayo Olubori told the bank’s MD: “We are shocked to learn that your field officers are goading our members to source funds from other creditors at an extremely high interest rate to service the non-performing facilities under this scheme, an action that will further compound the already precarious financial situations of our members.”

According to them, “There are also reports that our members are being pressurised to issue post-dated cheques and coaxed to sign blank CAC forms 8 without discussing details of what your bank will fill in the form as particulars of mortgage. “We see these developments as unprofessional. In our opinion, we consider the activities of your field officers as an attempt to ridicule and undermine the determination and efforts of the Honourable Minister, together with that of all other stakeholders in confronting the problems associated with the implementation of this Cassava Bread Policy and proffering a holistic and sustainable approach for the way forward. We are at loss to understand why your bank, a Federal Government Agency, will not join hands with others to find a solution to this national dilemma.

“In consideration of the foregoing, we request your bank and officials to stay actions on the contents of letters sent to our members pending the outcome of a proposed meeting involving the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, NCAMPA and BOI where all issues are to be discussed and ironed out on mutually beneficial terms.”

Regardless, the association stated that “the Bank of Industry (BOI) never responded or replied any of the letters dated 27th July, 2016 and 5th September, 2017 written to them.