As part of its contribution to the fight against poverty in the country, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Enugu-owned micro finance bank, Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank Nigeria Limited, Enugu , has given 500 female faithful of the Diocese N10 million soft loan.

Cheque for the N10 million loan was presented to the women by the Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank, Very Rev Prof Obiora Ike and Mrs. Maria Nnenna Ekete, respectively, during the 12th (2008) Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank, held at the Ofu Obi Africa Centre, Enugu.

Prof Ike said the loan was part of the diocese's poverty eradication efforts through the Bank, pointing out that the bank was primarily established by the church to assist in the caring and well being of the people, particularly the less privileged ones.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the beneficiaries, the President of Catholic Women Organization (C.W.O), Enugu diocese, Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Agu, expressed gratitude to the bank for the loans, promising that it would be used prudently and judiciously.

The C.W.O president, who hinted that the loans would be equitably distributed on the bases of five beneficiaries per parish, said "we don't want idle women again in the society."

Earlier in his statement at the AGM, the Bank chairman said the bank, which had since its inception in1995 been operating as a community bank, recorded a big success in 2007, when it met the Central Bank's new policy of minimum of one billion naira authorized capital for micro finance banks and became the first Micro finance bank east of the river Niger, re-branding Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank (UP-MFB) Limited.