Worried by its huge debt profile, the management of Afemai Microfinance Bank (AFMB) Limited has threatened to drag customers to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Pius Akpaibor, chairman, board of directors of the financial institution, disclosed this at the 23rd annual general meeting of the bank that took place at his corporate headquarters at Uzuaire, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State.
Akpaibor said about 16 high profile debtors of the bank were leaders and members of the community, and they owed the bank about N150 million.
According to Akpaibor, the huge debt profile is a big challenge to the bank; Afemai MFB is one of the very few successful microfinance banks in the country, and, we are very proud to be able to establish such a microfinance bank in our community.
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“We have made extra efforts to support the businesses and the activities of people of Uzuaire origin or Afemai origin because we believe that this is their bank. But unfortunately, high profile members of our community that we have supported have failed to pay back this money. If they don’t have the means to pay one will appreciate but they have the means to pay and that is why we feel very bad.
“They are clear threats and dangers to our business operations. Your bank has exhausted the normal procedure for enforcing repayment to no avail, which has compelled, as a last resort, to take legal and other recovery actions against these customers. These measures include recourse to EFCC as non- repayment of bank loans which is classified as economic sabotage,”
he said.
Akpaibor further added that the management in compliance with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive had set aside the sum of N150 million of its profit in the 2017 financial year to repay the debts.
He explained that the development has made it impossible for the bank to pay dividend to shareholders.
He however, appealed to the debtors to do everything possible to repay loans so that the bank will have more fund to disburse to the customers.
