My attention was drawn at publication in Punch newspaper of 01/06/2017. It's about the utterances of the representative of Bank of Agriculture's South East Zonal Office, Enugu, Mr. Aaron Obigbo, who spoke at a workshop organised by a research institute, the Development Strategy Centre, Enugu, that the people of South East don't repay loans.

I truly find this unbelievable and hard to accept. This allegation by the Bank of Agriculture of the unwillingness of South-East businessmen to repay loans is to me a way of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it. The alarm raised over high rates of loan defaulters among borrowers in the South-East cannot just go like that. Nigerians need to know these defaulters and how the loans are obtained.

Making such an expensive and high profile allegation in a popular place as this calls for a serious investigation. In that workshop themed, “Pro-poor growth, unemployment and poverty in Nigeria: A South-East agenda”, organised in partnership with the African Economic Research Consortium, Kenya, the BOA representative said the Bank of Agriculture was faced with challenges that stemmed from the unwillingness of its borrowers in the South-East to pay back loans obtained from the bank.

Obigbo alleged that businessmen usually disguise as farmers to approach the bank for loans in the zone.

He said, “Our (South-East) businessmen come to the Bank of Agriculture and borrow money and they will not repay.

“Some will collect inputs and sell them. They collect these inputs as farmers but they are not farmers.

“The man in the North will collect loans from BOA and pay back but our big men from the South-East collect this money and don’t bother to pay back.”

My concern here is whether the loans have gone bad and irredeemable or that the borrowers have turned to ghosts? It baffles me that someone is making a very cheap but high allegation on people who over the years have been complaining of government neglect. If this allegation is true, then let's join hands and expose them.

I say this because I am not comfortable with what is being said here. There were contradictions in the speech. The man equally accused the state governments in the South-East of their inability to take advantage of various schemes initiated by the bank, particularly the Anchor Programme, to better the lives of the people in the region.

According to the BOA representative, while states in the northern part of the country are maximising the opportunities provided by the Bank of Agriculture, many states in the South-East are yet to identify with the bank. He then urged South-East governments to utilise the funding opportunities provided by BOA, and also abide by the institution’s terms and conditions.

I want to be sure of something here. The same people labelled as criminals are being called upon to come and borrow money? The thing I know Bank of Agriculture in the South East for is playing to the gallery. I challenge BOA to please publish the names of those businessmen who borrowed money and refused to pay.

Fellow Nigerians, let us expose the evil ones, whether it is SE businessmen or BOA staff. We need to move forward!

However, the unanswered question raised by BOA remains: "Northerners and Southerners who are better in repaying bank loans?

if u like ur money dont give ur loan to people from dat region...dey dont pay loan..flantions ar fraud

Igbo believe in doing crude business. Most of them are too dubious.