Lamido Sanusi, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

Some of Nigeria’s rich and powerful, long accustomed to a lifestyle of yachts, fancy cars, and businesses fueled by unchecked credit lines, have been put on notice.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday made the unprecedented move of publishing a list of what it says are the major debtors to five banks rescued in a $2.6 billion bailout, among them some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in Nigeria. Hours later, the country’s top anti-corruption unit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, said the debtors had one week to repay their loans or risk arrest and seizure of their assets.

The list of more than 200 companies, individuals, and government bodies includes Nigerian billionaires; Nigerian Stock Exchange officials; energy and hospitality conglomerate Transnational Corporation of Nigeria PLC (Transcorp); the former governor of Nigeria’s richest state; and the Ministry of Finance.

“It has become necessary to use this medium to request the following defaulting customers of the affected banks to pay without further delay their indebtedness, failing which the banks will take all appropriate legal actions to ensure repayment,” the CBN said in a statement on its web site. Read the rest of this entry »

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