Banking without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell. This incontestable truth becomes clearer to Ademola Adebise, the new Managing Director of Wema Bank, by the minute. The MD has finally burned through his euphoric spells of fantasy to chance on cold, brutal reality; Wema is in trouble.
The bank severally touted to be doing very well is actually in dire straits. Consequently, this has put the bank MD in a bind; for the first time in his life, he has finally gotten to understand that bankruptcy is a sacred state, a condition beyond conditions, as theologians might say, and attempts to investigate it are necessarily cumbersome and tiring, like spiritualism.
Wema Bank currently groans under the weight of huge debts portfolio by its A-list customers. The bank’s debtors, comprising Nigeria’s superrich, have failed to refund loans taken from the bank to the extent that some of the loans may have to be written off as bad debt. Consequently, Ademola, the erstwhile sinewy and athletically-built MD is losing sleep over the huge debts.
He has lost so much weight in the last couple of months, his eyes are sunken and his cheeks have lost their rosy glow. Although many of his business associates and subordinates initially passed his weight loss off as a deliberate effort by the MD to keep fit, now they know better. He is troubled by the huge debt portfolio racked up his bank’s A-list customers. Some of the debts however, may never be repaid again, so we heard.
The Wema MD is severely troubled particularly at this period when the bank’s shareholders have resolved to turn the heat on him. The issue of huge debt portfolio and cumbersome debt recovery process had always bedeviled Wema like an albatross even during the tenure of the bank’s former MD, Segun Oloketuyi, but the situation has severely worsened over the years and according to sources within the bank, Ademola never understood the extent of the rot until he assumed position as MD of the bank some months ago.