Cardoso may order refund
Nine major Nigerian banks are sitting on over N530 billion in unused Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention funds, despite the suspension of all CBN intervention programs by the current governor, Olayemi Cardoso.
Since assuming office, Cardoso halted all development finance interventions, aiming to refocus the CBN’s efforts on its core mandate and limit its involvement in direct development financing.
Under the previous administration, led by Godwin Emefiele, the CBN delved into various intervention programs, disbursing over N9.71 trillion in development finance.
However, a recent investigation revealed that significant amounts of these funds remain untouched in the coffers of several banks, including Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, and Access Bank, among others.
Efforts to recover these unused funds are underway, with a committee tasked with overseeing the Anchor Borrowers Program seeking answers from banks. While there is no official response from the CBN yet, top officials confirm that laid down procedures exist for recovering such funds.
Meanwhile, small business operators advocate for the completion of fund disbursement by the banks. However, the future actions of the apex bank regarding these funds remain uncertain.
In a related development, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending are gearing up to crack down on defaulters of the N1 trillion Anchor Borrowers’ loan scheme. Despite over N1 trillion disbursed, only 30% has been recovered so far, leaving a substantial outstanding debt.
Meanwhile, the suspension of all new loan applications under existing CBN development finance intervention programs has also been announced, although existing loans with approved interest rates.
The email, titled: Suspension of New Applications Under CBN Development Finance Intervention Programs‘, read in part: This is to notify you that the Central Bank of Nigeria has discontinued the processing of new loan applications under its existing development finance intervention funds program such as Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Accelerated Agricultural Development Scheme (AADS), Anchor Borrowers Program (ABP), Agri-Business/SM E Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS) Real Sector Support Fund (RSSF) etc.
However, all existing CBN develop finance intervention funds with approved interest rates remain unchanged and are to be fully repaid in line with the terms and conditions.
