Monrovia – Liberia’s Minister of State for Presidential Affairs, Mr. Nathaniel McGill, has shot down rumors that he is indebted to the Liberia Bank for Development and Investment.
Report by Henry Karmo, [email protected]
In a telephone interview on Thursday, October 3, the Minister said his request to the bank was denied. “I asked for a loan but the bank denied me. I do not owe the bank. Where this information is coming from. I don’t know.”
The Minister’s response comes in the wake of a recent report suggesting that the LBDI was on the verge of closure because the Minister and others were in default of payments.
The InProfile Daily and GNN Online news articles pointed to allegations that the Minister of State, Nathaniel McGill, and a road contractor, Tony Lawal, Chief Executive Officer of Praise Gloria Lawal, both took loans worth hundreds of thousands of United States Dollars from LBDI and have defaulted on said loans.
Mr. John B. S. Davis, President of LBDI, described the story published by those two news organs as “fake news”. But Lewis Glay, editor of the InProfile Daily, told the Daily Observer that though he did not personally handle the story before publication, he knows and trusts the work of the reporter who wrote the story.
“I asked for a loan but the bank denied me. I do not owe the bank. Where this information is coming from. I don’t know.”
– Nathaniel McGill, Minister of State for Presidential Affairs
An official statement from LBDI says the bank continues to remain financially sound.
“LBDI wishes to assure its valued customers, stakeholders, partners and the general public that despite the general economic challenges, the Bank continues to remain financially sound and assures the public that all of its branches across the country remain open for business,” the statement said.
The statement continued: “The Management of LBDI, with the approval of its Board of Directors, is currently undertaking major enhancements in its digital financial services through migration of its Core Banking Software. ATM services and other business processes to provide more convenience to its customers. We are aware that these reform exercises are adversely impacting service delivery across the Enterprise. The Bank encourages that press and other stakeholders to join the transformation initiatives.”