Lagos – The Institute of Credit Administration (ICA), has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to amend its directive to commercial banks to publish their debtors names in the national newspapers as a debt recovery tool.
The President of ICA, Mr Adetunji Oyebanji, made the appeal at the institute’s 3rd Nigeria Credit Industry Awards on Wednesday in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CBN had in April directed commercial banks to publish the names of debtors quarterly in order to recover “bad debts’’.
He said that the plea to the CBN to amend the directive should not be seen as the institute trying to hold brief for the banks.
Oyebanji, also the institute’s Council Chairman, said the body viewed the CBN’s directive and its subsequent implementation by banks as standing opposite the ethics in credit management.
According to him, it is an action that is detrimental to the overall good of the economy and capable of discouraging potential investors and diminishes the interest of existing investors.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
He said: “Nigeria is a large economy; we want more people to participate, including foreign investors.
“This step can mar Nigeria’s business climate.
“The CBN must take steps to preserve its own institutional credibility as one of the strongest symbols of the national economy’’.
Oyebanji said that no economy could thrive without credit, adding that Nigeria was not an exception.
He said that acceptable policies and guidelines must be ordered for debt recovery engagement.
The ICA boss said that the exercise was not only a wrong debt recovery strategy in borrower-lender credit relationship but also incompatible with modern civilisation.
He said there were other avenues that could be used to repudiate the reputation of defaulters and abusers of business credit information.
Oyebanji said they included reporting and circulating “credit default information’’ to credit bureaus and institution of legal action among others.
He said the institute recommended that the banks should mobilise their legal departments to utilise the courts of law. (NAN)
