NDB says business loans not handouts

 THE National Development Bank (NDB) customers and prospective borrowers should not view loan as “handout”, a bank officer said.
NDB executive manager-lending division Trevor Caine said people should not think that because NDB was a government financial institution, they could get capital loans without repaying them.
Cain spoke to farmers, fresh food suppliers and buyers during the first horticulture value chain conference in Port Moresby last Thursday.
He advised them on how to go about borrowing capital from NDB for their fresh produce business.
“NDB is a people’s bank and it is a government bank, maybe that was the reason you were asking a lot from the government.
“Since it’s a government bank, they expect to get from it a capital handout, which they don’t have to repay.
“No … NDB is not a handout bank.
“That attitude needs to change.
“Because if you can’t pay back, how is the bank going to lend money to others, who actually need it for his business?”.
However, Cain said borrowing was necessity.
He lamented that one of the things NDB faced was that some people had taken borrowed capital for granted.
Meanwhile, NDB was asked if there was a maximum limit for loans to be approved as it sometimes took very long for the bank to approve and release funds, causing delays in project start up.
Cain acknowledged this and apologised for those that were not released on time.
He said the NDB staff were still learning and would surely improve on their time performance.