The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere has kicked against the proposed repeal of the Bank of Industry (BoI), the Bank for Commerce and Industry Act and the National Economic Reconstruction Fund Act which has passed second reading.
The group is opposed to the bill sponsored by Senator Ibrahim Gobir, for an Act to establish the National Development Bank, 2015.It seeks to bring the total assets of the organisations under one body to be called the National Development Bank.
The group said it is worried because the bill has passed the second reading in the Senate since October 12 and had been committed to the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Bodies for further works.
Its Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, said the suspicious plan, which has the support of CBN and Ministry of Finance, is curious noting that it is only in Nigeria that politics takes precedence over development. He queried the rationale behind the logic when Bol is known to have provided succour for many businesses especially in this difficult days of recession.
He called on the government to provide Bol with more capital to further support the real sector instead of duplicating functions by creating new development finance institutions, bearing in mind the failure of similar Development Finance Institutions in the past, such as the People’s Bank, Community Banks and others.
