In a bid to restore former glory to the banking sector and killing the seed of indiscipline, banks have been stopped from lending money to several companies and individuals. The companies on the blacklisted list numbered up to 113 and the individual directors/shareholders were about 419 in number. Individuals and companies in the list include Mr. Femi Otedola, Alhaji Sayyu Dantata, Sir Johnson Arumemi-Ikhide, former Power Minister, Prof. Bart Nnaji, Mrs Elizabeth Ebi and Dr. Wale Babalakin.

CBN reached decision as a result of the reluctance of debtors to pay up the loans which they had collected from the bank. In a circular dated Sept 17, the loan restrictions were placed on companies who still had an outstanding of N5billion naira and above. According to the circular, “it has become necessary to stop debtors who failed to repay their loans to banks and had these loans subsequently transferred to AMCON, from further enjoying credit facilities from Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) until they fully repay agreed outstandings to AMCON.”

The list of blacklisted companies showed Zenon oil as the worst hit. Zenon Oil is owned by Femi Otedola who is currently under investigation for oil fraud.  Zenon Oil is in debt to the tune of N192.4 billion. Other debtors include

MRS Holdings Limited, which belongs to Dantata  – N119.98 billion; Seawolf Limited – N98.32 billion; Arik Air Limited, belonging to Arumemi-Ikhide  – N85.481 billion; NITEL Plc/M-Tel  – N71.547 billion; and Capital Oil and Gas Limited, which belongs to Ifeanyi Ubah – N48.014 billion.

Others include Falcon Securities, whose Managing Director, Mr. Peter Ololo, was arraigned alongside several bank executives in 2009 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – N162.9 billion; Rockson Engineering Limited, owned by Arumemi-Ikhide – N60.475 billion; BGL Securities – N6.44 billion; Rahamaniyya Oil & Gas Limited – N46.38 billion; Bi-Courtney Limited – N20.214 billion; and Geometrics Engineering, owned by Nnaji – N19.76 billion.

The restriction also applies to: Aero Contractors Company, owned by the family of Olorogun Michael Ibru – N32.579 billion; Tinapa Business Resort – N18.509 billion; Nestoil Limited, belonging to oil and gas entrepreneur, Ernest Azudialu – N13.506 billion; Dorman Long Engineering – N9.667 billion; Ascott Offshore Nig. Ltd, belonging to former banker, Henry Imasekha and the Berkley Group – N64.728 billion; Gitto Constuzioni – N11.838 billion; and Dansa Foods – N14.880 billion, whose directors, Sani and Abdul Dangote, are the brothers of business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote.