Bank borrowing: Over N4 trillion in hands of 350 Nigerians-Senator Uba Sani

From Noah Ebije, Kaduna

“Nigerians have borrowed N4. 4 trillion and the borrowers are not ready to repay back”. He said.

Senator Sani made the disclosure while making a presentation at the ongoing political engagement with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Kaduna State on Friday.

The lawmaker who is also the Kaduna All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate told the workers that is not about people coming to make presentations “but what has the person done when he was given the opportunity to serve.

He challenged his opponents of the gubernatorial candidates of PDP, NNPP and LP who were lawmakers but could not sponsor a single bill while they were at the National Assembly, saying,” how will they think of governing a complex state like Kaduna.

He noted that as a Senator he sponsored 31 bills and two of the bills had been assented into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Senator Uba Sani who is representing Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the red chamber had said one of his bills that has become law was the Amended Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria Act that was assented into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 21st November, 2021.

“When I became the chairman senate committee on Banking, Insurance and other financial institutions I realised the banking sector was almost in a precarious situation in the country.

He noted that,” Nigerians have borrowed N4. 4 trillion and the borrowers are not ready to repay back. So, we fold our arms, we will reach a point where the banking sector will collapse. To avoid any crisis, we decide to amend the Amcon Act.

“We amended some key areas as well as introduced the Asset Tracing clause as part of efforts to recover outstanding debts.”

According to him, “at the end of the exercise, we discovered that only 350 Nigerians have borrowed N4. 4 trillion without corresponding collateral. When we calculated the total value of the collateral was only N700bn which was far less than the N4 trillion we are talking about.

The APC gubernatorial candidate said, some people were given their houses in remote villages as collateral, but the amended law now gives Amcon power to recover any property of the debtors in any part of the country.

“Anyway, the Managing Director of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (Amcon) has just hinted to me, that they have so far recovered N1. 7 billion from these debtors courtesy of the new law in place.”

The lawmaker remarked that when he becomes governor, he will improve on the legacies of El-rufai, saying, “El-rufai has done his best because as human beings you can not satisfy everyone”

He also pledged to improve the basic standard of education in the state saying, “once we get the basic education right, the standard of tertiary education will automatically improve”.

Earlier, in his welcome address, the state chairman of the Labour Congress, Suleiman Ayuba  remarked that the aim of the political engagement was to have first-hand interactions with the various gubernatorial candidates with the view to hear what they have for the workers and the people of the state ahead of the 2023 general elections.