Notore Regularises Accounts With Oceanic Bank
*Iseghohi Refutes Banks' Indebtedness

By Sylvester Enoghase and Philip Oladunjoye

NOTORE Company on Wednesday regularised its accounts with the new management of Oceanic Bank Plc, saying its project finance loan from the bank was for the rehabilitation of Notore's urea fertiliser plant from which revenues were not expected to be generated until the commencement of production.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the company, Jite Okoloko, who made the clarification to newsmen in Port Harcourt, said: "The loan Notore received in February 2007 was a project finance facility of $222 million from a syndicate of eight Nigerian financial institutions, including Oceanic Bank.

"And after a rigorous reconciliation exercise between Oceanic Bank's new management and Notore's management, Notore's account with the bank has now been regularised and brought up to date."

Okoloko, who argued that the loan was for the rehabilitation of Notore's urea fertiliser plant from which revenues were not expected to be generated until the commencement of production, claimed that there was a stipulated period for payback of the loan.

"The project finance loan is payable over a six- year period with an 18-month moratorium. The rehabilitation project was planned to last for a period of 14 months," he said.

The Notore boss, who claimed the escalated security situation in the Niger Delta, was not anticipated at the time of project planning added: "Our staff and vendor service men (VSM) could not enter the region until their safety was assured because to us, safe working environment is significant to the company.

"The gas supply disruptions due to militant activities on pipelines led to the shortage of gas, the primary raw material for Notore's production, which contributed to the delay in refurbishment and commencement of commercial activities."

Noting that the unforeseen challenges have largely abated and the plant successfully commenced urea production in July 2009, Okoloko said: "Notore's urea fertiliser plant is the only urea production facility in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and once production is stabilised, the company will generate over N3 billion monthly in revenues from urea sales, which will enable it meet all its obligations".

In another development, the embattled former Group Managing Director, Transnational Corporation of Nigeria, (Transcorp), Tom Iseghohi, has refuted his indebtedness to Intercontinental Bank Plc or any other Nigerian bank.

In a letter to the Governor of Central Bank, Iseghohi had through his lawyer, Barrister V.J.O. Azinge, disclosed that the loan of N6.5 billion allegedly credited to him was taken by Transcorp in 2006 and had been fully utilised for its purpose even before he joined the service of the company in 2007.

"Our client was not the Group Managing Director of Transcorp when the loan was taken from the bank, and from all records, the proceeds of the said loan were fully utilised before our client was appointed as Group Managing Director of Transcorp, and it is therefore erroneous for CBN to name him as one of the defaulters," the lawyer stated in the letter.

The letter requested that Iseghohi be immediately delisted from the CBN list of defaulter of Intercontinental Bank Plc and any other bank debtors list with regards to Transnational Corporation (Transcorp) Plc in the spirit of fairness, justice and the rule of law, noting that the action by the CBN would rather be unfair to Iseghohi, who never participated in the loan negotiation or its disbursement.

He said if the ultimatum issued by the apex bank to take legal action against defaulters were extended to his client, it would further malign his image.

"Right now, Iseghohi is not the operational GMD and therefore has no legal standing to take any action on behalf of the company," Azinge said.

He noted that Iseghohi was GMD Transcorp Plc from 2007 to 2009, before which he had put in more than 18 years of corporate business experience.


Its apparent that CBN did not conduct vigorous investigation.