BENUE state government had
terminated the N1 billion
counterpart agreement it entered
into with the Bank of Industry,
BoI, for the disbursement of
credit to micro, small and medium
scale enterprises in the state.
e Special Adviser to the governor
of the state on Media and Public Affairs,
Dr Cletus Akwaya who disclosed
this to newsmen inMakurdi, the state
capital yesterday said the government
took the decision because the vision
of the bank was at variance with that
of the state government.
He argued that while government
expected that the policy of the bank
would be Aexible and favour many
bene@ciaries, the bank’s polices were
stringent and is expected to bene@t
only a few individuals.
e special adviser further said all
amount of persuasion by the state
government including the setting up
of a teamtomake it reconsider its decision
proved abortive.
According to him, the intention of
the state government was to enable
many entrepreneurs bene@t from the
scheme just like N1billion agricultural
loan whichmany farmers across
the state bene@ted lamented the
stance of the BoI on the issue pointing
out that after harvesting over 400 applications,
the bank processed only
nine; with the highest bene@ciary collecting
about N100 million.
Akwaya who also noted that the
bank was not sincere in it’s dealings
with the state government observed Vicethat
one year after the state had deposited
it’s counterpart fund of
N500million into an escrow account,
the bank was yet to do same.
“ese irreconcilable differences
made government to terminate the
contract and ordered that it’s N500
million be returned to the state,” Akwaya
stated.