Infrastructure Bank recovers 95% mass transit loans
The Infrastructure Bank Plc has said it has recovered 95 per cent of the N10.5bn loans it granted under the first phase of the Public Mass Transit Revolving Fund.
The Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Adekunle Oyinloye, said this at the handing over of 65 mass transit buses worth N800m to beneficiaries in Lagos on Saturday.
He said that the recovery of the loans had grown the revolving fund's base to N15bn.
Oyinloye said the bank was already working on ways to recover the remaining five per cent through effective risk management system.
He said that the bank, as the fund manager of the PMTF Scheme II, was working in collaboration with the Subsidy Re-investment Empowerment Programme, the financier of the scheme.
Oyinloye advised the beneficiaries not to regard the buses as 'political largesse.'
He said that the government had to change the five per cent interest rate per annum under the scheme one to zero per cent interest under scheme two in order to lessen the burden of repayment on the beneficiaries.
According to him, the bank expects the beneficiaries under the scheme two to pay on time because of the zero interest rate.
The bank chief said the buses were to be fully paid for in order to sustain the scheme, which he described as laudable and people-oriented.
Oyinloye stressed that it was only through prompt re-payment that more Nigerian road transporters could benefit, warning that the bank would not tolerate any default by the beneficiaries.
He said under the scheme two, every beneficiary had to provide collateral for their loans to ensure recovery of the facilities.
He said, 'There is a risk management framework around the scheme; so, every beneficiary has to collaterise what he has taken one way or another.
'If we morally persuade them and it does not work on time, we will consider the next step to get our money back because the money belongs to the Federal Government of Nigeria. It is meant for the masses, because for other beneficiaries to benefit, previous beneficiaries must pay back.' He said that the aim of the PMTF was to enhance national transport services through the Federal Government's resources under the SURE-P.