The Bank of Agriculture (BOA) has warned Nigerians against taking loans to marry new wives and hold parties.
The warning was given by the BOA Ilorin Branch Manager, Mr Dele Aderibigbe who revealed further that the agency is striving to recover about N243 million loan disbursed to 150 debtors between 2011 and 2024 in Kwara State.
He stated that the loan, known as a warehouse loan, is classed as bad debt but is still being monitored for recovery.
The BOA manager stated that the bank was already in discussions with telecommunication firms and other partners to facilitate debtor tracking.
Mr Aderibigbe was quoted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as saying, ”The loan is meant to be a revolving loan to be paid back to give other people opportunity, but it is unfortunate that some people see it as a national cake that should be eaten from.
”The problem we have with most of them is that they use the loan for something different from what they obtained it for. Why get a loan to marry second wife or to throw parties?
”We are advising them to pay up because they cannot go scot free; through their guarantors and some other measures we are taking already, we will nab them,” Aderibigbe said.
He said in spite of the fact that the bank was poised to improve lives of Nigerians, some people are bent on frustrating government efforts.
”We don’t just approve loan and disburse without carrying out investigations on the project. We do our due diligence from Project Identification Visit, Pre-disbursement visit and Pre-take off visit, before the final disbursement.
”And in a year, the loan we give out is between N250,000 and N1.5 million at 14 per cent reducing balance interest. So, it is not that the process or payment method was cumbersome, they just chose not to pay it back,” the BOA manager explained.
Recall that BOA was established to carry out functions of a development finance institution for the agriculture and rural development sector.
It provides agricultural credit finance to support all activities along the agricultural value chain, rural savings and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).