Kogi BOI refuses to disburse N90m approved loans

The Kogi state Bank of Industry has allegedly denied beneficiaries of the Bank of Industry’s (BOI) of approved micro small and medium income (MSME) loans, totalling about N90 million. The grand total of amount of approved loan was put at N167, 472,327.49 out which N67, 327,037.50 was amount disbursed, according to our sources.

The source disclosed that this was the status on projects under the MSME fund scheme as at 10th March 2014. It was learnt that the beneficiaries are in two categories-A and B, under A, are those in the SMEs group and B, and are those in the COOPERATIVES group respectively. Mostly affected in the undisbursed loans are beneficiaries in the B group about 21 of them, who applied for the loan with the intention to boost their small businesses such as sachet water, food and beverages production, cassava processing, production of leather shoes, bags and belts, feed mills, furniture among others.
Kogi state is one of fifteen states in the federation where BOI is executing the N19.8 billion Micro Small & Medium Enterprises Development (MSME) funding programme. Other states are Anambra, Delta, Kwara, Niger, Osun, Edo, Ondo, Ekiti, Ogun, Oyo, Gombe, Benue, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States.

About 24 beneficiaries were said to have received approval for various amounts since March 2014, but investigations revealed that only two separate disbursements had been made and no explanation has been made by the BOI, a situation that has fuelled speculations that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sponsored programme may have been compromised by officials BOI.
While the two beneficiaries, who are the only SMEs on the list, have been fully paid the approved loans, 21 others in the Cooperatives have remained unpaid, the source alleged. Our source further alleges fraud in the disbursement querying why no official explanations have been given on current situation.
The beneficiaries, mostly peasants, expressed worry saying “We don’t know what the situation is. They were only able to disburse to two companies whose money is more than 30% of the total amount approved. Ours is within an average of N3 million each; yet they have not told us anything,” one of the beneficiaries told Blueprint.

It will be recalled that in August last year, while publishing guidelines for the operations of the recently launched N220 billion micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) fund, the CBN said 60% which would be devoted to businesses owned or substantially owned by female Nigerians.
The CBN defined micro enterprise as sole proprietorships with less than 10 employees and total assets of N5 million excluding land and buildings; while SMEs are those with asset base of between N5 and N500 million and 11 and 200 employees. It also defines women-owned enterprises as those belonging to Nigerian women groups or individuals, or enterprises that are at least 75 per cent owned or operated by female Nigerians.

About N118.2 billion of the fund is earmarked for women entrepreneurs, the remaining N79.2 billion is for others. Efforts to speak with officials of the BOI on the status of the disbursements proved abortive. At the Abuja headquarters of the bank, however, a staff who refused to be quoted simply said the programme is still ongoing.