BANYO TEMITAYO
A bill to allow banks recover loans from defaulters and blacklist them without recourse to the borrowers has been passed for second reading by the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly.
The defaulters will be placed on watchlist through their Bank Verification Numbers, according to Senator Sani Musa, who sponsored the bill.
The bill is seeking an Act to establish a unified scheme for a sound financial system that will facilitate and improve credit repayment culture by empowering banks to track loan defaulters.
The banks will be empowered, when the bill is passed into law, to recover the loans from other accounts operated by the defaulters.
Musa said, “The situation of Nigeria today demands an injection of healthy bank credit and recovery system that will effectively fast-track the pace of the growth… In every lending environment, there are two types of borrowers–the good and the bad.
“Before the deregulation of our banking system, the ability of our banks to recover loans had been the reason behind the collapse of many commercial banks.
“The principles behind this bill is to facilitate and improve credit repayment culture, streamline loan recovery and watchlist frequent loan defaulters with a view to track and blacklist them.”
The bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions, for second reading.
