By James Bassey
In the quiet, early hours of the morning, a notification flashes on a phone screen. Not a message of hope or encouragement, but an alert from a bank: a substantial sum has been deducted from an already depleted account. For thousands of Nigerian micro-entrepreneurs, this is not a crime or a fraud, but the sound of the other shoe dropping. It is the forced recovery of a NIRSAL COVID-19 loan, a lifeline cast in a different era, now transformed into an anchor in a stormy economic sea.
We must speak plainly: the aggressive, automated deduction of these loans from the accounts of struggling citizens is not just a policy failure; it is a profound humanitarian oversight. The government, through the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, championed these loans as a buffer against the pandemic’s devastation. They were, for many, a welcome act of support. Small business owners—the woman running a corner pharmacy, the youth with a modest cybercafe, the farmer co-operative—used these funds to stay afloat, to keep their employees, and to serve their communities when the world had shut down.
But the economic terrain of 2024 is catastrophically different from that of 2020-2022. The policy decisions of the last year—namely the removal of the fuel subsidy and the floatation of the Naira—have triggered an inflationary tsunami. The cost of inputs, transportation, and basic operations has tripled or quadrupled. The N1,900 exchange rate is not a statistic; it is the reason a bag of seed is unaffordable and a generator can no longer be fueled. The micro-businesses these loans were meant to sustain are not just unprofitable; many are functionally insolvent under these new conditions.
To demand full, rigid repayment now is to demand the impossible. It is to ignore the reality on the ground. When an account is “raided” to recover a loan, what is truly being taken? It is capital for restocking, school fees for children, money for medication. This approach does not recover a debt in a sustainable way; it extinguishes the very economic activity that could eventually lead to repayment. It is a vicious cycle that deepens poverty and crushes hope.
Therefore, this is a direct and urgent appeal to the Federal Government, the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the management of NIRSAL:
1. Declare an Immediate Moratorium: Halt the forced, automated deductions from beneficiaries’ accounts. This practice is causing acute financial trauma and must stop to allow for a reasoned review.
2. Implement a Holistic Loan Restructuring Programme: A one-size-fits-all approach is cruel and ineffective. Options must include:
· Significant Debt Forgiveness for the smallest loan tiers, recognizing that these funds were a survival grant for the most vulnerable.
· Long-Term Renegotiation for larger loans: extend repayment windows from years to a decade, slash effective interest rates to near zero, and base new repayment schedules on a realistic assessment of current business viability.
· Create an Appeals Process for beneficiaries to present their specific circumstances for individualized solutions.
3. Frame this as Economic Preservation, Not Just Debt Recovery: The goal must be to keep these micro-enterprises alive. A living, though struggling, business can eventually contribute to the economy. A strangled one becomes a burden on the social safety net. This is not a handout; it is a necessary recalibration of a policy gone astray due to unforeseen macroeconomic shocks.
Governance, at its core, is about the welfare of the people. The spirit of the COVID-19 loan was empathy in a time of global crisis. That same spirit must now be applied to its resolution. We appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his economic team to intervene. Show that this administration listens and can be responsive to the acute pain of its people.
Do not let a programme born of compassion become a byword for cruelty. Offer these struggling Nigerians a chance to breathe, to rebuild, and to believe again in the promise of their own industry and the support of their nation. The path forward is not through forceful recovery, but through wise, compassionate, and realistic renegotiation.
The Nation is Watching.
● Hon. Bassey is the National Contact and Mobilization Officer, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu Support Group (AATSG).
