Senators Disagree With BoI over Loans’ Beneficiaries, DecryMeagre Allocation to SMEs

Senators Disagree With BoI over Loans’ Beneficiaries, DecryMeagre Allocation to SMEs

Deju Elumoye and Juliet Akoje in Abuja

Members of Senate Committee on Industry, has disagreed with the Managing Director of Bank of Industry, Olukayode Pitan, over the disbursement of the bank’s loans to beneficiaries across the country.

The BoI boss had appeared before the Committee on Industry for interactive session on 2021 budget during which he claimed the bankdidn’t know the loan beneficiaries, but the destination of the loan.

According to him, the loans are secured through bank guarantees provided by commercial banks on behalf of the beneficiaries, which then forward the money to the beneficiaries.

Pitan’s submission, however, infuriated the trio of Senators Adamu Bulkachuwa, Christopher Ekpenyong and Danjuma La’ah, who claimed they were in dark about the activities of Bank of Industry in their respective senatorial districts.

According to Danjuma, “I don’t know what is going on with Bank of Industry activities in my Senatorial district.”

Ekpenyong too lamented that most of his senatorial district members were unable to access loans from Bank of Industry, adding that Union Bank and United Bank of Africa (UBA) did not give bank gurantee to his people.

On his part, Senator Bulkachuwa said, “The MD/CEO, you made comments while trying to answer my questions on the distributions of loans to beneficiaries. You actually said you were not in the position to know, exactly where these loans are going to, with regards to the geopolitical areas of the country.

“Does it mean that the Bank of Industry in knowing where the loans are going to and the actual beneficiaries are located in the country? We are interested in knowing where those loans go to.

“You, the giver of the loan should be more interested in the loan and where each kobo you give out is going and which part of the country is benefiting. You should be able to know. You should not leave it for the commercial banks to handle alone. Our interest is to know how the bank of industry is performing its duty in terms of ensuring that industries are spread across the country.”

Responding, Pitan said, “The Senator misunderstood me. BOI knows where our money is. We know where every Kobo goes to. I was actually answering a question on whether we are the one that determine the beneficiaries.

“The commercial banks are the ones that give guarantees, because they are the ones that would finalise the process. They determine, where the loans go but there is no loan that goes out of the bank of industry that we on our own don’t analyse. It is a requirement every month for the bank of industry to provide the document. We know exactly where our monies are.”

The Committee Chaired by Senator Tokunbo Abiru, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the bank’s meagre allocation for the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which are the real driver of economy in 2021 budget.

The Bank of Industry in 2021 budget released N165 billion to large enterprises in the country while Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises got N40 billion as at September, 2021.

The BoI boss, while defending the meagre allocation to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, said most people in that level are not ready to repay the loan believing that the money was government money and they didn’t have to pay it back.

The committee queried why Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises got meagre allocation in the 2021 budget, adding that the development was a sad one.

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