Abdulwahab Isa 
Loan defaulters on NIRSAL Microfinance Bank facility have experienced unexpected fund movement from their account balances as the bank activates the Global Standing Instruction (“GSI”) mandate for loan recovery.
The action, which caught many recalcitrant loan defaulters unprepared, has left the affected licking their wounds. GIS is a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) policy authorising recovery of loan obligations from any defaulting customer’s accounts.
Direct deductions at source from any of the de- faulting customers’ bank ac- counts with a liquid balance is permissible by the intro- duction of Bank Verification Number ( BVN).
A beneficiary of the loan under Targeted Credit Facility (TCF), whose money was pulled from her account this Tuesday, narrated her experience to this medium with a proof of debit alert message.
She said: “I set out to collect N1. 5 million under TCF. There was an unintended mistake on my part while filling the loan application form online. Instead of N1.5 million, I mistakingly filed N150,000. The N150,000 was approved for me in 2021.
“On my own without the bank prompting, I had paid N10,000 twice last year. However, to my surprise I received a debit alert on my other account to the tune of N41,000 this week. I was wondering. “I went to the bank branch located in Suleja.
They printed my statement of account for me. The officer who attended to me said the facility was a loan, not grant as many erroneously thought. He said every dime will be recovered.”
Another beneficiary, a female journalist, said the sum of N350,000 was debited from one of her ac- counts. According to her, she obtained N2.5 million loan under MSMEs in 2021.
“I paid N75,000 voluntarily last year. But last week I got debit alert on one of my accounts . I was surprised because I recall I didn’t carry out any transaction. “When I scrutinized debit narration closely , I saw GSI recovery . It struck me it came from NIRSAL micro- finance bank. I raced to the branch at Area 10 Garki. An officer confirmed it was from the bank.”
A top official of the bank working at office headquarters in Abuja, who spoke to New Telegraph, said a lot of people who took the loans were keeping faith with repayment agreement. She said defaulters won’t escape payment.
She said: “The recovery is going very well, people are paying back and people that fail to pay as at when due, the GSI automatically deduct from any account the person has money to NIRSAL Microfinance Bank. Meaning there is nowhere to hide, expect you leave the financial system.”
Asked how much had been recovered by the bank as of date, the official, who spoke in confidence be- cause she is not authorised to grant interview to media, said: “Recovery is a daily exercise, it difficult to give you a figure. As we speak now various branches are pulling monies from defaulters’ accounts with the help of GSI policy.
“Some people are making voluntary repayment. The figure isn’t static.” At the onset of COVID-19 break out in 2020, the CBN directed NIRSAL Micro- finance Bank to extend loan facility in two folds to distraught Nigerians as revolving loans with an initial 5 percent interest repayable in three years.
