Senate Sets Up Panel To Probe N500 Billion Loan Disbursement By DBN

The Senate on Wednesday decided to set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate an alleged uneven disbursement of N500 billion loan by the Development Bank of Nigeria.

It also urged the bank to ensure equitable disbursement of the loan in the six geopolitical zones of the country.

The Senate called on the bank to expand its loan facilities beyond the five sectors already captured by it.

These resolutions of the Senate followed its consideration of a motion, titled: “Un-even disbursement of half a trillion Naira loan to six geo-political regions by Nigeria’s Development Bank.”

The motion was sponsored by Senator Mohammed Ndume and co-sponsored by Senator Mohammed Bomai.

Ndume, in his lead debate, urged the Senate to note that there exists a huge disparity and uneven disbursement of N500 billion loan to the six geopolitical regions of the country in 2021 by the Development Bank of Nigeria.

He claimed that Lagos State got 47 per cent of the loan, which amounted to over N274.7 billion, while all states in the North accessed only 11 per cent in the sum of over N53 billion.

He urged his colleagues to be worried that the South West accessed a lion share of 57 per cent of the loan, amounting to N274.7billion.

He said the South South accessed N81 billon (17 per cent), Federal Capital Territory and North Central region got N53 billion (11 per cent), South East, N43 million (9 per cent), North West, N24 billion (5 per cent) and North East, N4.8 billion (1 per cent).

Ndume reminded the chamber that the DBN exists to alleviate financing constraints faced by Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country through “providing finance, partial credit guarantees, and technical assistance to eligible financial intermediaries on a market conforming and fully financially sustainable.”

He insisted that it was regrettable that lack of awareness of the existence of the loan or the bank and religious belief that precludes Muslims from taking interests loans and lack of formalisation of business had aided the alleged uneven loan disbursement.

Senator Betty Apiafi in her contribution noted that since the DBN is a wholesale bank that operated through Participating Financial Institutions, which are mostly domiciled in the South, extending such PFIs to the North would increase amount to be accessed in the region.

Other Senators in their contributions supported the motion and approved its prayers when they were put to vote by the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who presided over the session.

Omo-Agege named the seven-man panel: Mohammed Sani Musa (Chairman – North Central), Ibrahim Danbaba (North West), Lilian Ekwunife (South East), Senator Sadiq Sulaiman (North Central), Senator Mohammed Ndume (North East) and Senator Ayo Akinyelure (South West).