Omoh Gabriel
15 October 2009
Lagos — THE Central Bank, CBN, yesterday, made good the promise by its Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, to publish the list of those indebted to the four banks that failed the second phase of the its audit test and whose managements were sacked two weeks ago.
The CBN in a statement signed by M.M. Abdullahi, Head, Corporate Affairs said: "In furtherance of the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to assist the banks affected by the outcome of the recent CBN/NDIC Special Examination, we publish herewith the list of non-performing loans of N100 million and above for Bank PHB, Spring Bank, Unity Bank, Wema Bank and Equatorial Trust Bank as at June 30, 2009."
Four of the five banks are being owed a total of N348.409 billion.
A breakdown of the amount the individual banks are being owed show that Bank PHB is being owed N170.073 billion; Spring Bank, N95.594 billion; Equatorial Trust Bank, N46.154 billion and Unity Bank, N36.585 billion.
The list contained the names of companies and individuals which non-performing loans are in excess of N100 million. Conoil which Chairman is Mike Adenuga, owes Equitorial Trust Bank a total of non-performing loan of N19.866 billion followed by Transcorp which owes Wema Bank N16.627 billion. Netlink Television owes Spring Bank a non-performing loan of N4.821 billion and Mofas Shipping is listed as owing the Bank N3.053 billion. Both companies are promoted by Otunba Fasewe.
The companies and individual owe four of the five banks a total N348.409 billion. Falcon Securities owes a total non-performing loan of N14.793 billion and its Director as listed by the CBN is Peter U. Ololo.
On the list is Ankara Overseas Development company which is listed as owing Bank PHB the sum of N10.491 billion. The Director of the company is one Prince Oyedele. Another company owing N10.881 billion to the bank is Platinum Capital and its listed Director is Mr Carlos Kazeem.
Its account with the bank had a balance of N10.491 billion as at June 2009 but rose to N10.948 billion as at 5th October 2009. Zenon Petroleum is owing Bank PHB a total N5.154 billion. Absa Nigeria Limited is also listed as owing N3.999 billion as at the end of June, 2009 but the indebtedness fell to N3.177 billion as at 5th October.
The Directors of the company are Dr. Innocent Ezuma, Mr Abdulrahman and Mr Isa Mohammed.
Also owing is Cogipar Nigeria Ltd which the CBN said is having a non performing loan of N3.730 billion. Mr P. S Ugboma is listed as the Chairman of the debtor company.
On the CBN list of debtor companies to the banks is Gitto Construzioni Generali which Managing Director is Salvatore Gitto has an outstanding non-performing loan of N4.792 billion.
Delta Steel is listed as owing the banks N4.195 billion and Jalin Kapoor and S Karana Kumar are directors of the company. Other high profile debtors to the banks are Future View Securities N3.606 billion, Ojemai Farms N4.998 billion, Patosan oil and Gas owned by Peter Ololo N4.050 billion, among others.
It will be recalled that the CBN, on August 14, sacked the management of five banks and published the first ever list of bank debtors in the country. On that occasion, a list of the mega bad debtors is Ascot Offshore Nigeria Limited, which has N44.67 billion loan burden with Intercontinental Bank Plc. Its directors were named as Joey Chuma Obue, Samuel Aikhionbare, Henry Imasekha and Emmanuel Nwachukwu.
Notore Chemical Industries Limited being operated by Onajite Okoloko was listed as owing Oceanic Bank N32.39 billion, while the troubled Transnational Corporation Plc has N30.86 billion to pay Union Bank, with Dr. Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke listed as its director.
Falcon Securities Limited, with Peter Ololo, Simbabe Joseph and Emmanuel Ugbo as directors, is owing Afribank N29.5 billion. The company is again owing Oceanic Bank N22.26 billion. Also, Rahamaniyya Global Resources Limited, owned by Abdul Rahaman Musa Bashir has a non-performing loan of N28.59 billion with Oceanic Bank.
Mid-Western Oil and Gas Company Plc, owned by Onajite Okoloko and Adams Okonen have N23.86 billion to pay Oceanic Bank.
Other top bad debtors listed by CBN include Mr. Femi Otedola, N12.8 billion (Intercontinental Bank) through his company, African Petroleum Plc and another N6.2 billion is owed Union Bank through his Zenon Oil; Mr. Oba Otudeko, immediate past president of Nigerian Stock Exchange, (NSE), N1.6 billion (Oceanic Bank) through Honeywell Group; and Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim, N14.78 billion (Oceanic Bank), through Global Fleet Industries Limited.
Forbe's rated richest man in Nigeria and NSE president, Alhaji Aliko Dangote also has a non-performing loan of N2.5 billion to clear with Oceanic Bank, secured through Dangote Industries Limited.
Prince Fredrick Akinruntan, owner of Obat Oil and Petroleum Company was also listed to be owing Oceanic Bank N4.47 billion.
On the whole, over N746.19 billion non-performing loans were recorded against the mega debtors in the five banks.
With N278.20 billion, Oceanic Bank recorded the highest volume of the non-performing loans, followed by Intercontinental Bank with N210.9 billion.
Afribank is being owed N141.86 billion; Union Bank N73.58 billion; and Finbank N42.45 billion.
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I have been waiting to see which of the Nigerian dailies will be the first to publish the name of Atiku as one of the biggest debtors other than the “usual suspects” mentioned so far. Obviously none of the Nigerian journalist, columnist, or editorial board has the guts to do so. I wonder how many pieces of silver have been paid to them, by Atiku and others to buy their silence as the next round of electoral campaign begins to hot up. Part of the reasons corruption is rampant in Nigeria is because of these “praise-singers” that abound in our media and their “untouchables” of the real kingpins of the Looters & Co while they keep recycling the usual minnow serving as foot-soldiers as their "fight against corruption." If the Nigerian media are so afraid to speak up for fear of being sued, as Atiku did to NewsWatch, or have taken their usual bribe to keep their mouth shut, let me assure them that BBC has already identified Atiku to be on the List. Its a shame that a foreign media has to break the news first for Nigerians. Until the Nigerian media (from This Day, Vanguard, Guardian to Leadership, etc) and their fellow pretenders from Andoakaa to Waziri demonstrate their truthfulness and fairness in reporting to name and shame the real Kingpins of Nigerian cabal, so long with corruption continue to reign supreme and so long will I always consider whatever I read in the Nigerian media with suspicion. You all are not to be trusted and part of the cabal that is strangulating our national growth.
I appreciate the bold step taken by the CBN to recover these debts thereby saving the public another failed banks saga. At the same time banks should learn their lessons from this.