Published 17th Jun, 2021

By Socrates Mbamalu

In 2019, Rebecca Daniel Zamari applied for a N5million loan through the Agri-Business/Small and Medium Enterprise Investment Scheme (AGSMEIS), but did not know the loan had been approved until she received a text message on May 4 asking her to visit any Nirsal Microfinance Bank and fund her account for loan repayment.

When she showed the text to those at the bank, she was asked if she had received any loan. She answered in the negative, saying no one had given her any call regarding any loan. She was asked by the bank to ignore the text message, saying it was not meant for her.

On May 26, she received the same text message, followed by a call from the Central Bank of Nigeria two days later. It was this call that confirmed to her that there was some shady business going on with the money she was supposed to access as loan. The caller told her that there was a loan that was approved in her name, which she was supposed to start paying back. The loan had been approved since December last year but Rebecca had no idea.

Further suspicion was raised when Rebecca told the caller that Nirsal Microfinance Bank had asked her to ignore the message. The caller from CBN asked her to visit Nirsal Microfinance Bank and ask them to check her BVN number, and tell her why she’s not yet received her loan.

At the bank, they confirmed that indeed the N5million loan had been approved and that only N500,000, which had not yet been put in her account, was available.

“So they were checking and discovered that somebody had been transacting business with the money,” Rebecca said. The bank said they would follow up, but have not yet gotten across to her.

The AGSMEIS loan is a Federal Government initiative to promote agricultural businesses. It was part of the government’s efforts at employment generation and economic development. Rebecca needed the loan to expand her production business. She processes tea, tiger nuts and essential oil among other products. The loan comes with an interest rate of five per cent per annum. The loan does not require collateral.

“The step I am trying to take is to write a letter to the Central Bank, since they are aware they have approved a loan to me but I haven’t received it. I want to tell them that I have met the microfinance bank but I have not seen any result about it,” she said.

Rebecca was told that the money was assigned in her name and it would show she is owing CBN.

FIJ reached out Nirsal Microfinance Bank and spoke with Godwin Njam, the Jos Manager who said he was aware of the case and had noticed one or two transactions on Rebecca’s account.

“After discussing with her, we got her BVN and on checking we saw one or two transactions,” he said. “The branch where it happened, we discussed with them because I think there is an issue of mix in the identities. There is a person with the same name in another place.”

He further explained that the issue was being worked on with auditors. “There are times that a digit can cause a distortion in a transaction, or it is possible that in picking somebody’s name they pick somebody’s phone number,” he added.

Njam further stated that if it was an issue of foul play, it would be found out and dealt with. The use of BVN, which should solve the issues of mix-up in identity, doesn’t totally explain why Rebecca’s account was debited twice without the money being in her account yet.

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30 replies on “Rebecca Zamari Applied for a CBN N5m Loan. Someone Else at Nirsal Got it and Spent it”

Many atrocities were committed by the official which are yet to be uncovered. More of such stories in the nearest future.
Lofty idea by federal government but corruption won’t allow it to be effective

I Okonkwo Ekene Francis the Ceo of Warehouse Price Global Ltd applied for the loan at Anambra state Nirsal Microfinance Bank which I also went for the enter view and passed but till now I was not call for the loan funding.

It is obvious a delebrate fraud was committed by the banker who diverted the fund to another person. Furthermore, it could not have been possible for two persons to have same account number and BVN. Why is that when to distursement of the loan facility issue of same identity came in, the said fund was purportedly errorneously transferred to another person and time for payment the issue of same identity never comes to play again.
In light of the above, I strongly hold that the woman whom the said loan facility was granted in her Favour should still receive and collect the said loan. Also there should be a records to state that the said fund was not distbursred to her at when due. The person whom the loan was disbursed to shouod be question by the appropriate authority as well as the banker if dofferent from the recipient of the fund.
Many issues are beghing for an answers which must be answered.

Same way they mall treated my friend. He got approval for 1million naira. But the officer in charge asked for some upfront payment before he would approve the disbursement. Thereby killing the business before even starting it.

Your friend should have outed the official! Like it is easy to run a business one lazy, thieving individual is now asking for bribe. Under which accounting sub head is that?

Proper planing to the execution of their so called initiatives. They hardly bring in initiatives that can be sustained.

Who no’s if my own was approved too but some one has taken the money

Don’t tell me Efcc is not aware of this going on for long now . I did apply as well but never got any fund and it was sad when I got to see people of no business premises nor a registered one are the most beneficiary, once you can dance with them. We all know about the high leave of corruption going on in there and I expect every staff of the micro finance bank should be audited and jail if fund guilty.

Mistakes happen. But this wasnt a mistake. Are you telling me that someone in Nigeria has the same name, same account number in the same commercial bank as Rebecca? Impossible. I was a victim as well. They dare not come and ask me for money I never received. Rebecca’s application like me and many others was just an excuse to dole out funds to selected people in collaboration with CBN officials. Only few people get the loans, the rest do not know their fate only for an official from CBN placing a call to say that you are yet pay back a loan you NEVER COLLECTED. Now I can understand CBN’s insistence, and at times, demand on the South East and South South to take this facility.

My business start from morning

My business start from the Daily Show you my friend and she is my favorite

This was exactly my thought on the AGSMEIS loan. I never knew such happened already. What a corrupt nation with corrupt minds.

Those of that apply online for the same loan without no approval I hope we are saved? Some NIRSAL officials are collecting 10k for processing fee and 100k once approved. It is well with us ooo with this wickedness

Please the CBN or any one who is in charge should find solutions over this issues, I am the CEO of maych classical shoes, I also need this loan to grow my business

I will be very grateful if my request is approved due to concentration

This is Nigeria where anything goes. I just know there’s something fishy about this one. It wasn’t any coincidence at all, it was sheer fraud! I applied for the same Nirsal loan but was shocked when I noticed an update in my Nirsal account that I had completed a training which I never did or was called by anyone to do. So I completely agree that a lot of shady things are going on there. If anyone is going to ask me to repay any money tomorrow, then they should also be ready to show me proof of disbursement of the funds into my account. This is so sad and can be traumatic. As if the country is not hard enough.

Yes, some will blame this atrocity on MUHAMMADU BUHARI. There are many just like Nirsal Microfinance Bank operating in the Nigerian financial system 🤷🏿‍♂️

So this is what happens, I applied for this loan and up till now no response no wonder maybe someone else has received it. Well at least they’ve not called me to come and pay

My wife applied and 200k was approved but uptill today, NIRSAL is yet to release the money to her after several visits to their Ikeja office. Hope CBN will not call for repayment some time in the future cos anything is possible in Naija

God purnish those corrupt idiots who are everywhere in all sectors who would blame President Buari for everything, is he the cause of this one? Would he be everywhere? Has he not approve the initiative and the money? But those Baboo would frustrate the effort. Every corrupt individual is a problem to this country, that’s why even in NYSC you can not get posted to reasonable place without paying heavily to the officials.

Corruption had been institutionalised and it will take a longer period to tamed this menace. Unfortunately, this is not new and many more like this will go unpublished. We do have a long way to go.

I direct Rebecca to report the to
EFCC with all documents of the Loan application including the texts messages immediately.
Nigerian should Know that ，it is posssible for an other person who knows your bvn to take your AGSMEIS Loan .
When the loan is approved, the bvn and the name of the applicant are sent to Beneficiary Information Management System (BIMS); this is a computer database software that store all the information of the persons who are ready and approved to get the loan in nirsalmfb. This BIMS can be accessed through Google browser. Any fraudulent person who knows only bvn of the loan applicant will use BIMs platform on Google to check whether loan is approved before nirsalmfb even sent the text to the applicant .
On BIMS platform, if the loan is approved, a page of terms and conditions addressed to the name of the approved loan applicant will appear with acceptance button.
where anybody or the approved applicant accept by clicking the acceptance button, another page will appear with places to fill in the bank details.
Note that, at this point, anybody’s bank details or bank account number that is filled in there will get the loan paid in the same bank account. This is where the fraud can occur . The main suspects if any fraudulent case are parties that know or hold your bvn beginning with the computer persons, your EDI to the bank itself. So right people to investigate this case is EFCC. Thank

Same thing happened to me.
I applied for the loan even attended the interview, after some months they called me for something they called upgrade, later in the week i received a message saying that my application was unsuccessful because of bad credit report on my account.

Hmmmmmmmm this Nirsal microfinance bank have alot of question to answer. Same is my situation as I write this message. I applied for d same loan but didn’t know 500k was approved in my name. Now when I got the sms I had to go to nirsal. They told me my loan had bn approved nd disbursed but I didn’t get any notification to that effect. So I insisted on knowing the account number the money was transferred to nd they gave me a heritage bank account number. I hurriedly ran to d nearest branch of heritage bank only to discover someone had used my name nd bvn to open account there. Now the funniest part is dat I never went to heritage bank to create any account. Y do I have an account in my name nd bvn I’m not aware of? Who opened the account? Who verified the bvn? As the phone number, house address, and passport photograph on the account profile isn’t mine. Now I went back t ok nirsal only for them to tell me that they have done their part nd when it’s time to pay I will pay for the loan dat was disbursed. Like how do I pay for money I know nothing about? Please I need advice on what next to do because from d looks of things I’m I’m definitely gonna pay for it.

We even paid YEN 10k for training and certificate till now we have not received any certificate.
I don tire for this country.

I had the same issue and after all the process of applying, I didn’t get any loan only to receive several messages for almost 2 weeks and calls which I stop answering after some time from the bank (NMFB) that my loan is due for repayment and that I should found my account.

Nigeria is a fraud haven and the citizens are products of corruption. 90% of the staff of both CBN and NIRSAN microfinance bank got their jobs through mago-mago, corruption and man-know-man. When politicians, senators, Reps members and party stalwarts with their agents approach you to submit names to take their slots in ABCD schemes, how do u think the slots came about? They swop peoples names. My company submitted 9 names for the FG 30k Survival fund salary support scheme and 8 were approved and verified. When time for disbursement came, only 2 staff got paid once instead of twice. What happened to the rest of the 7 staff? What happened to the 2nd and 3rd month’ salaries? The politicians and relatives of the Governors and aides swooped and siphoned it. NIRSAL microfinance bank is a corrupt haven and CBN through NIRSAL microfinance has no business dealing with the masses.
CBN ought to be a financial regulator and not a commercial banker. They should channel such programmes through the commercial banks who will ensure the right beneficiaries are credited and Repayment strategies enforced to recoup the loan. NO GOVERNMENT AGENCY HAS EVER BEEN A GOOD MANAGER OF BUSINESS NIT EVEN CBN.

Nigeria is a fraud haven and the citizens are products of corruption. 90% of the staff of both CBN and NIRSAL microfinance bank got their jobs through mago-mago, corruption and man-know-man. When politicians, senators, Reps members and party stalwarts with their agents approach you to submit names to take their slots in ABCD schemes, how do u think the slots came about? They swop peoples names. My company submitted 9 names for the FG 30k Survival fund salary support scheme and 8 were approved and verified. When time for disbursement came, only 2 staff got paid once instead of thrice. What happened to the rest of the 7 staff? What happened to the 2nd and 3rd month’ salaries? The politicians and relatives of the Governors and aides swooped and siphoned it. NIRSAL microfinance bank is a corrupt haven and CBN through NIRSAL microfinance has no business dealing with the masses.
CBN ought to be a financial regulator and not a commercial banker. They should channel such programmes through the commercial banks who will ensure the right beneficiaries are credited and Repayment strategies enforced to recoup the loan. NO GOVERNMENT AGENCY HAS EVER BEEN A GOOD MANAGER OF BUSINESS NOT EVEN CBN.

I was sitting somewhere when I was shown a credit alert by someone who never applied for the loan. On another occasion I was at Nipost to pick up a package when I overheard someone complaining that a loan has been disbursed in her name but she didn’t received the fund in her account. For me to pick this two scenario show that there are widespread shady deals going on in NIRSAL. I am calling on EFCC as a matter of urgency to look into this