Equity Bank has denied claims by William Ruto that it offered a loan of 15B to Turkish businessman Harun Aydin, with the help of the Deputy President who have the institution a call to help his foreign friend.
Speaking before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning which invited Equity Bank to shed more light on the alleged issuance of the billions of shillings to Mr. Aydin, the bank’s Managing Director Gerald Warui said Aydin does not hold an account with Equity and that at no point was he ever advanced a credit facility by the bank worth 15B.
Read: CS Matiang’i: Government has not apologised to Turkey over Aydin’s deportation
”He (Harun Aydin) does not operate and does not have a banking relationship with us neither does he have a loan with Equity Bank. From where I sit, I am not aware of that phone call. But maybe given time I can try to find out because we have many senior people at the bank both at the Group and Kenyan level. We also have many board members so it might not have come to my attention whom he might have called,” stated Mr. Warui.
”We have not lent Ksh.15 billion to any of those two customers in Uganda. When it comes to Uganda, the amount that can be lent to a single customer is capped to a limit of Ksh.2.3 billion because of the capital requirement,” the Equity Bank MD.
Even though the bank has dismissed the credit facility claims, it has admitted to having a business relationship with Dei Group of Companies, associated with the deported Turkish, which was setting up a medical facility in Uganda that would produce enough medicine, including Covid-19 vaccines.
Read: Wanga asks KRA to furnish Parliament with Harun Aydin tax information
On August 5th, the DP claimed he helped the investor secure Sh15 billion funding from Equity Bank to set up a biotech factory that was launched last month.
”The investor had come to my office and asked me to link them with Equity Bank. I took my phone and called Equity and told them there is one of us from East Africa, you have a branch in Uganda, help him if you can,” Ruto said in an interview on Inooro FM.
“When the guy succeeded, he went and built the factory. Where is the problem?” Ruto posed.
