The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has warned that financial institutions promising easy loans and other financial products easily run into trouble and run off with customers’ money.
The CBN issued the warning in Yola yesterday, barely a week after some financial institutions were shut down in Lagos following complaints from customers.
The apex bank which held a public enlightenment programme termed CBN Fair in which it highlighted its interventions targeted at various sectors of the economy, said although the institutions it regulates are robust and reliable, it could not say so for unregistered institutions.
The Director of Corporate Affairs, Mr Osita Nwanisobi who represented the CBN Governor at the CBN Fair holding simultaneously in Adamawa and Taraba states, stressed at the opening ceremony in Yola.
He said: “We are here to project our programmes and interventions and also to warn you against people who promise you unbelievable returns. Be careful of people offering easy loans. They entice your to take loans and then begin to harass you when you are unable to pay back.
“Nigerians should be mindful of unlicensed entities who claim to be selling financial products. We are telling people not to give their money to people who will use it to do kalokalo business and when it collapses, they run away.
“We are saying when an entity is not licensed, do not patronise it. If you have doubt, we have CBN branch here. Go to CBN and ask: this one, is it licensed? Is CBN supervising them? Do not be in a hurry to put your just anywhere.”
The CBN Fair in Yola and Jalingo attracted farmers, traders, civil servants, corps members, students and people from other strata of society for whom CBN design interventions.
As the CBN Director of Corporate Affairs equally explained, “We also bring people who have accessed some of our interventions, to come and tell people what they have done with what they accessed or how they have benefitted from what Central Bank is doing.”
Some of such beneficiaries exhibited their products at Lalewa Hotel, the Yola venue of the CBN Fare.
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