Olalekan Pitan, Managing Director of Bank of Industry (BoI) has assured the House of Representatives of its resolve to recover over N8.4 billion owed by 53 delinquent debtors.
Pitan gave the assurance before the House Committee on Public Accounts while responding to queries issued by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAGF) in its 2015 audit report.
While noting that the Bank has commenced recovery drive, Pitan noted that some of the debtors, including those without a case have taken the bank to Court in the bid to stall the recovery process.
According to Pitan, the OAGF had directed the Bank to either publish the names of the debtors in three national dailies or recover the debt.
In compliance with the the directives of the AGF, Pitan said the recovery efforts began immediately with the publication of the names of the debtors in three national newspapers.
“In addition, we have recovered some money, some of the companies were reported to the Econonic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for recovery.
“Also, some of them have subjected the recovery to litigation while the property of some of them are on the verge of being sold,” he informed the Committee chaired by Kingsley Chinda (PDP-Rivers).
Pitan who resumed duty recently as the BoI Managing Director however declined to provide details of the amount recovered so far, when members of the Committee inquired.
While responding to the status of the N2.7 billion YouWin fund domiciled with the bank for disbursement since 2012, Pitan said the bank could only access N870 million out of which N129 million was returned to the treasury through the Treasury Single Account in 2015.
In his remarks, Chinda who expressed dismay over the high debt in the Bank’s financial record, noted that the huge debt could truncate the objectives of the bank to revamp the economy.
In his response, Pitan who allayed fear over the debt portfolio, argued that “the bank is not under duress, this does not in any way threaten our business. We are rated and in a healthy position.”
While ruling, Chinda requested for details of the debts recovered so far and transactions on the YouWin programme.
