The Federal Government has been urged to intervene in the dispute between Omatek Ventures and the Bank of Industry (BOI). The lender had shut down Omatek following the company’s inability to finance its debt.
The President of the Nigerian Computer Society, Prof. Adesola Aderounmu said it has become necessary for such intervention, as the action has spiral beyond Omatek, and it’s now affecting the economy as unemployment rises across Nigeria.
Background: Omatek was accused of defaulting on its credit facility agreement with BOI, and has refused to service the N5.81 billion which it obtained in 2012. According to the development bank, all effort to retrieve the debt has proved abortive despite promises of financing from the company’s management.
It has been more than twenty-four months since BOI closed the factory of Omatek. This has led to retrenchment by the information and communication technology firm and lose of jobs in Omatek.
According to Aderounmu, it’s time for FG to prevail on BOI to vacate the court order and reopen the factory since Omatek had notified its shareholders of willingness to settle out of court with BOI in order to reach an amicable agreement on the loan default.
What FG’s intervention means: BOI is a government controlled development lender. No other party can compel BOI to vacate the court order than the Buhari-administration.
Why this matters: Omatek has the capacity to employ over 600 youth both directly and indirectly at peak production, but the continuous shutdown would prevent the company from contributing its quota to the development of the economy. Currently, Nigeria needs more job opportunities, as the total number of unemployed persons in Nigeria grew by 31% to 21 million people in Q3 2018 from 16 million in Q3 2017, and Omatek is an opportunity to cut rising unemployment.
About Omatek: The company is listed on the Nigerian Stick Exchange (NSE) with corporate focus in the assembling, sales, maintenance of computers, inverters and solar power products. It is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) specialising in the local assembly of computer cases, speakers, keyboards and mouse, other than Computer systems and Notebooks in the whole of Africa.
Assembling of these components in its factory has created a great advantage to other systems builders as well as resellers all over Africa for retailing.
