NDB cracks whip on top 20 non-performing loans
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The Management of the National Development Bank (NDB) is accused of interfering in debt collection of some accounts in which they have strong interests, the WeekendPost can reveal.
This publication has established that as a result of a decline in financial position, the bank is on a debt collection rampage and, to achieve this, it has identified top 20 accounts that contribute significantly to the Non Performing Loan (NPL).
This publication has intercepted communication between the bank Senior Monitoring Officer and Credit Portfolio Manager concerning the alleged management interference.
It is understood that a department at the bank – Monitoring and Collection Unit has been mandated to reduce the Loan Book to acceptable levels but management is poking its nose in the operations of the department.
The Senior Monitoring Officer Modiri Itseng indicated in the communiqué that management was prying in the accounts of Trilobite Holdings, Tomorrow (pty) Ltd and Tati River Lodge – which altogether owe NDB almost P30 million.
With regard to Trilobite Holdings, Itseng stated in his complainant letter that after Trilobite failed to pay off its arrears and while they were at a time of issuance of a summons to the company, they received an instruction from the Chief Operating Officer (COO) to “halt collections activity until given a go ahead” by him.
“We are not aware of the reasons advanced by the COO as to why we should not demand payment from the client given the status of the account,” the letter stated.
Itseng further decried that it seemed that the said client was given preferential treatment under circumstances that may be questionable. He went on to say, “you will further recall that the promoter owns Lurid Investments (pty) ltd which is currently being written off after the client was favoured with a discounted settlement of over P149,000. 00. The total amount being written off is over P177,000.00.”
This publication has also gathered that Trilobite Holdings is under the directorship of a renowned farmer Monty Chiepe. The account contributes to over a whooping P10 million on the bank NPL book.
According to Itseng, another company, the Tati River Lodge‘s account, as per the end of January portfolio report contributed to over 8million on the NPL book.
Itseng stated in the letter that Tati River Lodge in Francistown failed to pay as advised and they commenced collections process demanding payment of arrears failing which, legal proceedings would have been instituted.
“Upon following the rightful procedure of which we were on the verge of having a summons issued, the COO, without advising the collections team handling the account, committed the bank in agreement with the client by signing an offer letter of rescheduling the loan account,” he said.
According to the Senior Monitoring officer, this lack of communication from the COO’s office has in part defeated the purpose of arrears collection.
“Non collection, in this instance a rescheduling without prior payment by client is detrimental to the state of the business in that, our cash flow is adversely affected. A rescheduling is merely a postponement of payment which the bank should not encourage. (Unless the clients demonstrate commitment by reducing arrears before rescheduling is considered)” he pointed out.
According to the Senior Monitoring Officer, staff morale at the bank was also affected as the lack of communication reflected that there was no trust that officers could fully execute their duties without senior management interference.
“This was not only demoralizing to officers attempting to collect from the client, it was also embarrassing to have issued conflicting and contradicting information from the same bank.”
It is understood that Tati River Lodge’s sister company Prideaux (by the same directors) – was foreclosed due to default of payment.
It also said that judgement was granted in favour of the bank but the deputy sheriff, duly instructed by the internal attorney responsible for collections was stopped from executing the writ.
“I have been reliably informed by Senior Collections Officers in Francistown that the instruction not to execute was issued by the COO. Prideaux contributed over P1.7million in NPL as at end of January portfolio report,” Itseng stated.
Another similar intervention by the NDB COO was exercised in respect of Tomorrow (pty) Ltd, whose account also is a major contributor to the NPL book, adding over 8 million as at end of January 2015. The client was offered rescheduling of the loan account without the officers who were pursuing the client to pay off the arrears being informed.
“Please note that we have agreed with you that clients should be advised to demonstrate commitment by reducing arrears before indulgence to reschedule could be given. This was to be the case on accounts with high arrears and contribute significantly to the NPL book such as the above stated accounts,” the NDB official lambasted.
Itseng further stated he believed that the same clients that NDB management was always willing to give indulgence to were servicing their loans elsewhere for fear of litigation, but are taking advantage of being considered “high profile clients” by NDB and that they could phone the CEO to avoid servicing the loans.
“This is an impediment to our collection strategy efforts. I therefore employ you to impress upon the CEO and COO, to let us, through your office and that of the Head of Operations carry out our mandates to manage the bank’s portfolio and collect,” he decried.
Itseng reminded the Credit Portfolio Manager that, “you will recall that on several meetings, both the Head of Operations and yourself have continued to remind us of our targets and the ultimate goal of the recovery plan the bank has embarked on, which is to collect on ALL arreared loans in order to reduce our NPL and improve our cash flow. It comes as a surprise that you have forwarded the instruction form the COO’s office without interrogation and subsequent explanation to the collection team regarding the suspension of collection on the account.”
The accounts are also said to be targeted by the Collections Strategy Project Implementation Committee which reduces loans because of their value and resultant contribution to the Non Performing Loan Book.
The Project Implementation Committee is tasked to among other things, follow up on the top 20 accounts (including the 3 stated) and demand payment of arrears and ultimately have the accounts removed from the NPL book.
When reached for comment the Marketing and Communications Manager Harry Marks said the bank, like any financial institution in the country, is exposed to economic cycles and has lately had to contend with limited liquidity (more so that it is not yet deposit taking), low interest rates; “higher than average incidence of non-performing loans” and squeezed margins.
“In its 51 years in existence, NDB has successfully circumnavigated the business terrain in which it operates, and of recent past as a self-sustaining entity,” Marks said.
According to Marks, the bank has in this regard been able to touch the lives of many Batswana by focusing on business landscapes that other Banks are not keen to finance, such as agriculture and start-ups. “To date the Bank has paid government dividends amounting to P130.2 million in the past two decades. The Bank consistently executes its mandate towards economic diversification of the country and has a proud record of development to showcase. It is our commitment to continue on the path of aggressively executing this mandate,” he said.
However indications are that the accounts owing the bank millions of pula are treated with kids’ gloves and affecting the bank negatively. Altogether the accounts total exposure for Gaborone branch amounted to 81 million as at end of October 2014, a figure which continues to increase exponentially recording a high of 93 million as at end of December last year.
Efforts to solicit a comment from National Bank Development Employees Union (NDBEU) President Gilbert Watshipi proved futile at the time of going to press.
Meanwhile the former Secretary General of NDBEU John Matlapeng, who has since been replaced by Bose Masuke, has through a communication of 12 December 2014, warned the board chairperson Mr Vincent Seitei about the effects of the uncollectable debt.
“To date, and as is the case every year, management is struggling to persuade the external auditors to endorse the annual accounts. As usual, management and staff are called upon to cook up some gymnastic explanation with regard to its bad debt provisioning methodology, and generally account for how it has factored the impact of its substantial uncollected debt. Such a situation cannot be allowed to persist as an annual ritual, year in and year out.”
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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”
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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”
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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”