A palpable tension is reported to have taken over the senior management staff of the Moruf Oseni-led Wema Bank.
This is as management staff of the financial institution are expected to soon have questions to answer regarding the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) intervention fund.
Sources report that the disbursement of the funds is set to see the executives of Wema Bank being invited for questioning by Jim Obazee, who was appointed by President Bola Tinubu as a Special Investigator to probe the activities of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and its entities over the management of the intervention fund.
According to sources, the move is to ascertain any discrepancies around the management of the intervention funds by Wema Bank.
interestingly, this is coming after the team investigating the CBN reportedly discovered discrepancies and irregularities in the financial accounts.
In August, the CBN released its financial accounts for the years 2016 to 2022 amid an ongoing probe of the financial services sector regulator.
Recall that on July 28 Tinubu appointed Obazee, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (RCN) as special investigator to probe the activities of the CBN under Godwin Emefiele.
Meanwhile, the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), George Akume, said the Federal Government would soon unveil the audit report of the probe of the CBN.
Typically, saboteurs are expected to be punished if found culpable.
Findings reveal that about nine banks have at least N208.33 billion undisbursed funds from the CBN for the Anchor Borrower Fund and the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme.
In the first half financial statements released to the Nigerian Exchange Limited, Wema Bank claimed that it had N848.23 million of the Anchor Borrowers Fund in its coffers from N1.96 billion signifying that it had disbursed N846.26billion between January and June 2023
The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme was established by the CBN in line with its developmental function. It was launched by former President Muhammadu Buhari on November 17, 2015, to create a link between anchor companies involved in the processing and smallholder farmers of key agricultural commodities.
The CACS is a scheme powered by the CBN in collaboration with the Federal Government represented by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development with the aim of providing concessionary funding for agriculture so as to promote commercial agricultural enterprises in Nigeria.
So far, there have been controversies over the beneficiaries and repayments of the fund.
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