Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) has initiated legal proceedings against 60 high-ranking officials from 13 commercial banks due to a protracted dispute over a N17 billion Anchor Borrowers Programme loan with Afex Commodity Exchange.
The executives, including chairmen, CEOs, directors, and secretaries, face contempt charges for allegedly ignoring a No-Debit Order placed on Afex Commodity Exchange's accounts. The case, identified as FHC/L/CS/911/2024, was presided over by Justice CJ Aneke of the Federal High Court, Lagos. The court mandated the arrest of these officials, including the liquidator of Heritage Bank, for not complying with a May 27, 2024, court ruling.
A legal notice, published in national dailies like The PUNCH, indicated that the Plaintiff Applicant could serve Form 48 (Notice of Consequences of Disobedience to Order of Court) on the 60 cited for contempt. The hearing has been postponed to next Thursday.
The banks involved include Access Bank, Citibank, Jaiz Bank, Union Bank, Fidelity Bank, First Bank of Nigeria, First City Monument Bank, NDIC (as liquidator for Heritage Bank), Polaris Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Taj Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Zenith Bank.
The court's May 27 ruling instructed 20 banks to transfer funds from Afex’s accounts to GTB until the N17.81bn debt is cleared. The debt comprises N15.77bn in principal and N2.04bn in recovery costs. Additionally, the court allowed GTB to seize and sell commodities from 16 AFEX warehouses, financed by the Central Bank of Nigeria's Anchor Borrowers’ loan facility.
Earlier, contempt charges were also filed against AFEX and its top executives for failing to repay the loan, initially taken to finance smallholder farmers. AFEX claimed to have repaid about 90% of the loan, attributing the delay to economic challenges affecting farmers' repayments.
AFEX called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to enforce a collateral guarantee clause to cover the remaining debt, arguing that GTBank's actions were premature given ongoing negotiations. The Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, launched in 2015, aimed to link smallholder farmers to processors to boost agricultural output and stabilize food prices. By 2022, it had supported 4.8 million people, with N1.079 trillion disbursed and over N500bn due for repayment. The CBN has since shifted focus from development financing to its core duties of price and monetary stability.
