A publish-names-of-serial-debtors “order” has been given to local banks and the deadline is 1 August 2015.

Mrs Tokunbo Martins, Director of Banking Supervision, Central Bank on Nigeria (CBN), made the development public Thursday during a press briefing on the outcome of the 322 Bankers Committee meeting in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

“You will recall that at the last Bankers Committee meeting, we discussed about publishing the names of serial debtors of banks.

“We discussed this again because of the fact that the date is drawing close.

“Last time we had the meeting, we said that there should be three months of grace to give the debtors the opportunity to put the facilities back to performing status.

“So, by the 1st of August, any debtor that hasn’t done so, the name will be published by the bank.

“So, the banks are encouraged to speak to their customers that fall into that category that they should put in more effort to pay off,’’ she said.

The total credit currently in the system is between N13 and N14 trillion, about three per cent of it is non-performing, according to Martins, and the banks have an upper limit target of five per cent.