NEXIM NPL Ratio Hits 91%, CBN Delays N500bn Fund
Indications at the weekend are that all may not be well at the Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), following allegations of high-level fraud in the disbursement of loans by the former management team. Sources within NEXIM and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), the audit firm, pointed to several violations of laid down procedures, as reflected in the bank’s unprecedented Non-Performing Loan (NPL) ratio at 91% of its total loan book. “That level of fraud within the system is perhaps why the CBN is yet to activate the N500bn Export Stimulation Fund set up to promote non-oil exports in Nigeria,” one of the sources lamented. The ESF was last year revamped, using the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme model, just as the CBN introduced a N50 billion direct intervention funding for NEXIM, which Godwin Emefiele, the apex bank told journalists was to further the country’s economic diversification efforts. It was also to develop sources of foreign exchange, especially in the agriculture value chain...