The Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe, has threatened to go after Diamond Bank’s debtors should they fail to redeem their debts.
Speaking during an interview, Wigwe said Access Bank Plc will not hesitate to publish the names of the debtors in the Nigerian mainstream media if the debtors don’t remit their debts.
While revealing that the bank has so far recovered N2.2 billion debt in the year under review, Wigwe maintained that the bank will intensify its efforts to recover the debts owed to Diamond Bank.
Commenting on the rise in unclaimed dividends, Wigwe acknowledged that the increasing figure is worrisome. He, however, stated that the bank is working hard to reduce the figure.
“We will try to map out strategies to reduce the N14.6 billion shareholders’ unclaimed dividend as at the financial year ended December 31, 2018. We are also not happy as the figure keeps increasing, so we want shareholders to come over and pick their dividend. We will work with our registrar, the company secre;tary to see how to get this figure down.”
The Backstory: Prior to the merger with Access Bank Plc, Diamond Bank’s rising Non-Performing Loans (NPL) was one of the major issues killing the bank. By the time the two banks eventually merged to form Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest bank, the scheme of merger empowered Access Bank Plc to take over ownership of Diamond’s assets and liabilities; including the debts.
Therefore, seeing as it became Access Bank‘s responsibility to recover the debts, it is not surprising to see that it is doing making efforts to accomplish just that – recovering the debts.
About the company: Access Bank Plc is a Nigerian multinational commercial bank, owned by Access Bank Group. It is licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the national banking regulator. It is currently one of the five largest banks in Nigeria in terms of assets, loans, deposits and branch network.
Note that Access Bank Plc‘s stock traded at N5.80 on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
