Etisalat
Nigerian has been taken over by Access Bank, GTB and a consortium of
other local and foreign banks over a N541.8 billion debt.
Below is a reaction by one of our fans Jide Oyetubo.
THE ILLS OF ACCESS, GTB IN ETISALAT CREDIT
Honestly, I now understand why professionals commit blunders and get away with them.
How can ACCESS BANK, GTB & OTHERS commit such a professional
economic sabotage and nobody is raising eye brow. Even, almighty CBN is
keeping mute.
How can all these banks be exposed to a single
obligor ( ETISALAT )to a whooping sum of N541bn ( half a trillion
naira). I bet you the management of these banks did these out of sheer
greed, to catch in on the boom in the Telecoms sector flouting their
role as a bank in the economy.
As a bank, one of your national
roles is to balance the fiscal policy ( govt money) and monetary policy
(individual, church, mosque org & Corp. etc money) by ensuring
excess is taking to balance the deficit thereby ensuring stability of
the economy. I trust that FBN will not be in the consortium ( I stand to
be corrected) because they have learnt there lessons with V-connect now
Airtel.
These banks offence is economy sabotage, you now took
depositors fund of over half a trillion and pump it into ONE company
just for your banks to make huge profits from the sector. CBN needs to
move in and query the management of this banks for professional
misconducts and actions capable of maligning our economy.
If
these banks had pumped about half of that money into SMEs, or other
sectors like Agric, manufacturing, etc do you know how many jobs would
have been created, how many biz would have expanded, how many jobs would
have been redeemed. Sometimes I wonder what government is doing other
than formulating means to multi-tax us.
Now that the facility is
under performing, the investors are on the run, after all nothing to
lose, they have been doing business with Nigerians money, management is
under eagle eyes, contractors in credit balance to ETISALAT are jostling
to be paid, the staff are unsure of their jobs and lastly their service
charges has been erratic. One stitch in time saves nine. Did CBN ever
perused the credit to protect our economy and these consequences.
Taking over the management isn't the issue, is ETISALAT actually making
profit. Or they thought they could split the market share with MTN
& AIRTEL easily. What's their cutting edge?
these issues should
be visited by all the parties concerned in other to save another major
collapse in the economy and I hope this will guide future credit
decisions.
Jide oyetubo.
OUR REJOINDER
We agree with Jide on this observation, Nigerian banks have not learnt their lessons. Before the crash of oil, The oil industry was the darling of bankers.
They ignored the cries of young entrepreneurs, while actively chasing
after oil and gas operators with billions. When oil price crashed, most
of them lost their shirt.
But they didn't learn. They continue
chasing after "blue chip" companies like Airlines and Telecoms, and they
continue to lose billions, with AMCON stepping in sometimes, to mop up
their bad debts. The Airlines they lent billions are folding up one
after the other.
Imagine if these banks will spend N100 billion
on thousands of small businesses, instead of spending over N500 billion
on just one company.
Granted, many of the small businesses may not
succeed, but the few that do, will reward them a hundred fold, not to
mention the ripple effect on the economy, and the hundreds of thousands
of jobs that will be created.
If they are as smart as they look,
they will understand that you will hardly lose your shirt, if you make
adequate investment in a sector like Agriculture, because people must
eat. But they treat Farmers like 3rd class citizens.
This is why
silicon valley produces multi billion dollar companies like FaceBook,
Google, UBER, AirBNB etc.. Because their venture capital firms and
banks, are willing to take the risk of sponsoring hundreds of start-ups,
and they are smart enough to know that even if 90 fails, the 10 that
succeeds, will more than offset the loss, and multiply their gains.
But in Nigeria, banks believe in "sharp sharp", 3 mothns to 6 months
loans with gargantuan interest rate. But for "Big companies", they will
give them billions, and lick their behind as well. This is in essence,
poverty mentality and also very dumb. With due respect, wearing a clean
suit, doesn't make you smart.
We at Millionaires Academy www.register.millionaire.ng
, are working to change this trend, by convincing big players and even
angel investors, that it pays to invest in startups with bright ideas,
irrespective of background and collateral.
We pray the federal
government, to step into this matter, before these banks will crash on
our head with these dumb decisions to invest only in blue chips and "big
men", and neglect the major drivers of the Nigerian economy, which are
small businesses.
The worse is that if a small business collects
loan from a commercial bank, it will strangle the business, because of
the unrealistic and abominable interest rate.
How do you expect
entrepreneurs to grow their business with a 30% interest on their loan?
While in America, their entrepreneurs are getting as low as 5% interest
rate ?
This is preposterous and on behalf of small
entrepreneurs, we continue to pray the government to wake up to this
monstrous practice that is inhibiting economic growth in our dear
country.
Nigerian entrepreneurs are among the brightest and best
anywhere in the world. If we can survive and even thrive without bank
support, imagine what we can do if banks change their policy, and push
low interest money into the system ?
One day we shall get there,
and then the world will hear of us. I salute all entrepreneurs in
Nigeria. You are the best ! Most times, your small size, is not really a
reflection of your inability, but the tough economic environment you
are operating in.
But, do not excuse yourself, fight on and you will
still win ! Join Millionaires Academy today, we are the moving train.
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