Ecobank Chief Seeks Framework To Resolve Huge Industry's NPLs

Nigerian banks are facing tremendous financial pressure as the industry Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) mount daily, Ecobank Group Chairman has said.

Emmanuel Ikazoboh who led a delegation of the bank's top management to visit President Mohammadu Buhari in Abuja said the major problems confronting commercial lenders are the issues of recalcitrant debtors who took loans from banks and refused to pay back.
"We have a number of debtors both corporate and individuals, and we need to put in place a framework to ensure that people do not just take loans and not pay back," He said.
He canvassed that a framework to be put in place to ensure that people do not just borrow from the industry with the intention not to pay back.
"Banks are under pressure because if you have a lot of unpaid loans, it means you don't have enough money to also support other borrowings or other small and medium enterprises.”
Nigerian banks are currently reeking under the yoke of huge NPLs, put at over 8 trillion naira by the regulatory bank.
The Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), which acquired the industry bad assets in the wake of the banking crisis in 2009, has also been burden with huge unpaid debts by recalcitrant debtors that are no longer willing to pay back.
On what the bank was doing to support SMEs in the country, Ikazoboh said, “we've improved the capital of Ecobank in Nigeria. In the last six months, we have brought in about $150 million all to drive borrowings and supporting the small and medium enterprises.”
The bank also wants the government to decongest the road leading to the country's main seaport and rebuilding of the transnational Lagos-Badagry-Seme road.
"We are talking about the Seme road because of West African trade route which we think should be given some priority," the bank chief said.
In his responses, President Buhari urged the bank institute a special fund to develop agriculture, which will cement its legacy as a bank that helped to transform this region's economic fortunes.
On requests by the bank for the decongestion of Apapa ports, and rebuilding of the transnational Lagos-Badagry-Seme road, he responded: "We are aware and are working in all those areas, and by the grace of God, you will start seeing results during my second term in office."