Nigerian men are taking loans to marry more wives – Bank of Agriculture

The Bank of Agriculture (BOA) has said it is working to recover loan sums to the tune of N243 million disbursed to 150 debtors between 2011 and 2024 in Kwara.

BOA Ilorin branch manager, Dele Aderibigbe told journalists on Monday in Ilorin that men have been taking loans to marry second wives instead of what they obtained it for.

He said the loan, termed ‘warehouse loan’ is classified as bad debt but is still under monitoring for recovery.

Aderibigbe said the bank was already in talks with the telecommunication companies and other stakeholders that could make tracing the debtors easy.

He said; “The loan is meant to be a revolving loan to be paid back to give other people opportunity, but it is unfortunate that some people see it as a national cake that should be eaten from. The problem we have with most of them is that they use the loan for something different from what they obtained it for.”

“Why get a loan to marry second wife or to throw parties? We are advising them to pay up because they cannot go scot-free; through their guarantors and some other measures we are taking already, we will nab them.

“We don’t just approve loans and disburse without carrying out investigations on the project. We do our due diligence from project identification visits, pre-disbursement visits, and pre-take-off visits before the final disbursement. And in a year, the loan we give out is between N250,000 and N1.5 million at 14 per cent reducing balance interest.”

The BOA manager explained that the “process or payment method was cumbersome; they just chose not to pay it back.”