· Bank crumbles under huge debt portfolio
· Management destroyed bank by giving bad loans to friends
Chaos permeates the coffers and halls of the Nigerian Bank of Industry (BOI) as you read. The bank has fallen apart at the core; it’s centre cannot hold.
Few weeks after the Managing Director (MD) of the bank, Rasheed Olaoluwa, was fingered in grievous allegations bordering on financial and official misconduct, the BOI is in the news again.
The bank is reportedly facing severe financial crisis; the bank’s debtors, according to a highly placed source within the bank, have refused to service the huge debts they owe the bank. Many of them are defaulting in servicing loans they owe the bank and this is taking a severe toll on the bank’s operations, according to the source.
The Capital findings revealed that some the debtors are friends to the bank’s senior management staff and the latter are finding it extremely difficult to persuade their friends and debtors to refund the huge loans taken from the bank.
The situation becomes particularly worrisome given the fact that the bank among other things, was established to assist Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country achieve a sound economic footing via progressive micro and macro finance schemes.
But contrary to the purpose of its establishment, the bank has allegedly metamorphosed into a tool for reaping unearned benefits, embezzlement and fostering the bonds of friendship between certain shady senior executives of the bank and their cronies outside the bank.
The bank currently suffered a paucity of cash and a huge debt portfolio, according to the bank’s senior and middle management staff. According to them, the wondrous end of year party staged by the bank’s MD at Eko Hotel and Suites last weekend was simply a ruse, a desperate tactic meant to deceive the bank’s stakeholders into believing that all is well with the bank. All is certainly not well with the Bank of Industry.
