28 August 2008
Lagos — Managing director of Integrated Micro-Finance Bank (IMfB) Limited, Mr. Simon Akinteye has called for the strengthening of the nation's micro-finance banking sub-sector so as to drive home the benefits to the target segment of the society.
In a chat with Daily Champion during a recent conference on a road map to sustainable micro-funding in sub-Saharan Africa, he explained that the task of extending banking services to the poor in Nigeria is a situation which the emerging Micro-finance banking sector is set to fix.
According to him, "experience has shown that the poor hardly default on loans and this has been the secret of the record success my bank has made".
He said customers of micro finance banks, unlike those of the conventional banks, are educated, trained in their trade and seek proper advise on what to do with loans before they get it.
Akinteye revealed that the training processes and supervision during the period of the loan by micro-finance experts help to limit default and raise the production out put of customers.
He confirmed that his bank had through series of attractive products penetrated the fabrics of the rural poor to change their business and money making platforms for good.
IMfB remains the micro-finance bank with the largest customer base in the country, it was the first micro-finance bank which pioneered sharia compliant products and eight full fledged branched nationwide.
The managing director of the bank also revealed that IMfB is currently the biggest micro credit bank in the West African sub-region with best Micro-Finance Bank award of 2007 in Nigeria. Akinteye noted further that the driving mission policy of the bank is bringing banking services at the door steps of the poor.
In another separate interview with the Chairman of Traders Micro-finance Bank Limited, Chief Denis Adindu Okafor, he argued that most of the growing micro-finance banks in the country were those that metamorphosed from community banks to MFBs. He condemned the move by last administration who he said voted N10 billion for MFBs only to mortgage it at the conventional banks to the detriment of the micro funding capacity of MFBs.
He said his bank currently has a robust customer base with attractive services aimed at raising the growth potentials of customers.
He however called on the government to evolve enduring policies capable of encouraging the sector, saying all the products and operations of MFBs are excellent tools of rooting poverty in the land. The managing director of the bank, Mr. Obilo Ejike Emmanuel enjoined Nigerians who have not savoured the advantages of MFBs to approach one so as to turnaround.
He further disclosed that the MFBs provide services that are compliant with people doing business with very low capital which according to him, are in majority nationwide.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Daily Champion. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
