Banks urged to ‘name and shame’ loan defaulters

Banks have been told to take serious actions against chronically delinquent and non-cooperative borrowers, including naming such borrowers as well as issuing a directive that will bar them from dealing with other banks.

Governor Dr Joseph Mills Jones

The Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia, Dr Joseph Mills Jones, has said the major challenge facing the banking sector in the West African sub-region is the high level of incidence of non-performing loans, which has left commercial banks in the sub-region rocking the boat of bad debts.

Banks in the sub-region are grappling with bad debts more than ever before as their loans and advances portfolio continue to swell while increasing sums of monies given out as loans to customers continue to remain as bad debts, which are debts not likely to be paid, giving rise to banks losing huge amount in profits.

Central Bank uses the banks as scapegoat

Central Bank of The Gambia

The Central Bank of The Gambia has blamed the country’s failure in meeting the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI) payment system on the lack of participation and the unwillingness of banking community to make financial commitments towards the implementation of the payment system.

“While Ghana and Nigeria are saying they have this and they have that, unfortunately, we in The Gambia do not have anything yet” the said the Deputy Governor of CBG, Mrs Sara Savage-Samba, while contributing to a discussion on the current state of the West African Monetary Zone (WAMZ) during the first Swift Business Forum for the WAMZ member countries held in Accra, Ghana.  

While Nigeria and Ghana are virtually on the verge of completing conversion criteria towards meeting the zone’s agreed settlement system for member countries, The Gambia and Sierra Leone “are yet to put up any meaningful foundation”, a local newspaper in Ghana has reported. 

The WAMZ is an integration of selected West African countries with an aim to establish a common economic and monetary union for its current six member countries, the establishment of a West African Central Bank and a Financial Supervisory Authority and a common currency for the zone.