Oluwatobi Ajayi, the CEO of Nord Automobiles, has publicly identified Stanbic IBTC Bank as the institution he accuses of "economic sabotage" and "unbelievably unethical" conduct, detailing a series of allegations ranging from refusing to finance local goods to an "illegal" N700 million debit.
Ajayi unleashed a torrent of accusations, alleging the bank is actively undermining local manufacturing.
The immediate trigger for the public statement was an incident involving a customer. "To my shock, yesterday, my team told me that the bank... told him that they do not finance Made-in-Nigeria vehicles," Ajayi stated.
He claimed the bank's staff went further, stating, "...they even suggested to our customer that he should go for foreign brands instead."
"What sort of economic sabotage is this?" Ajayi demanded, calling it "yet another example of the needless sabotage and institutional bias against Nigerian manufacturers..."
Beyond the financing refusal, Ajayi revealed an ongoing, high-stakes legal battle with Stanbic IBTC.
"Earlier this year, in April, they unilaterally debited 700 million NGN from our account without any court order," Ajayi alleged. "We didn’t borrow money from them."
The dispute reportedly stems from 2022 Letters of Credit (LCs) that Nord believed were settled. Ajayi claims the bank is now retroactively re-pricing the transactions:
"They claimed that the LC we took in 2022, which was fully paid at the prevailing exchange rate of about 430 NGN to 480 NGN... was no longer valid, and that we now had to pay at over 1,600 NGN..."
Ajayi said the bank's justification was "that they didn’t receive the LC USD from the CBN and that we somehow owed them."
He described the bank's action, while the matter is in court, as an "ambush" that was "unbelievably unethical."
Ajayi, who also shared a 2022 email complaining of the bank's "terrible" service, affirmed his commitment to seeing the legal case through. "I know justice can be slow, but I am committed to fighting this battle to the end."
While he has now named the bank, he had previously warned, "I may change my mind later (even in a few hours)," indicating the rapidly developing nature of the dispute.
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