IMFB LATEST
STAFFERS SWINDLE CUSTOMERS ON LOAN PAYMENT
Following the permission of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to temporarily shut Integrated Microfinance Bank, IMFB doors due to lack of short-term liquidity, staffers have been allegedly involved in all manners of fraud and consequently swindling customers who are either owing the bank or those who do not know that the bank has seized to operate in all its branches in Nigeria.
The staffers, who go on parade daily, seeking for money from customers, are allegedly said to be threatening some customers with the police that they should pay the loan borrowed from the bank to them.
Some were alleged to have seized properties from the lenders who have not paid up before the bank was closed. Some staffers were said to have arrested some customers, who have not finished the payment of their loans with police who they are alleged to have made agreement with that whatever they realized from the customer would be shared between them.
An affected customer, who operates his business in Agege, Lagos was arrested by a staffer of the defunct bank with the claim that he has to pay all what he owns the bank since he was the one who helped him to negotiate the release of the loan from the bank. The staff arrested the customer with the aid of a police officer, who locked him up in police cell at Oke-Koto Police Station in Agege.
It was the intervention of the customer’s relative, who happened to be a police officer that revealed the deal between the police officer and the staff of the bank to get money from the customer without the approval of the bank and share it accordingly. Some staffers were alleged to have been making calls to customers who still have outstanding loans to offset, that the bank management direct them to collect the balance on their behalf.
Another development is that of staff who claimed that the bank has only been closed in Lagos, that customers who have accounts with the bank can still service their accounts by saving a particular amount with the bank branch outside Lagos and enjoy the privilege to borrow a huge amount and pay back with a convenience formula.
Those who fell victim of the scam include market women and men who have little or no information about the closure of the bank. The staffers, who are now in the markets, still wear the company’s uniform and convince people to save in branches outside Lagos that are not experiencing crisis like its Lagos office.
Once they are able to collect reasonable amount of money from a particular market, they change market and move to where their trick has not been noticed.
The bank’s management is presently shopping for fresh funds of about N1 billion from both institutional and private investors in order to reinvigorate the bank
Meanwhile, the bank is undergoing restructuring and has already approved the appointment of Danjuma Ibrahim, former Regional Director, Northern Operations, as the Acting Director/Chief Operating Officer.