Micro finance banks are opening shop in the city centres while the rural areas for which they exist remain largely unbanked.

Daily Trust can reveal that the small banks are not popular with the dwellers of country side and some of the farmers and traders interviewed claimed ignorant of the scheme.

The micro finance banks policy came after the concept of community banking was abolished by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. There are 815 MFBs in Nigeria.

The essence is to ginger the growth of grass root economy by making available capital and the funds for small businesses, and thus helping to alleviate poverty in the country. The banking system worked successfully in Bangladesh and o the Asian countries.

Some experts who spoke to this paper said the policy seems to have died on arrival because it has not made any significant impact on the economy. Rather people who should not have benefitted are benefitting from the scheme.

Some of them asked the small businessmen to produce collateral which scares them away. The scheme was conceived so that micro business actors can access loans based on social, communal and mutual understanding and not collateral. Hence, it will appear only those who have collateral that access the facility.

Daily Trust reported that the Yar'adua-Jonathan government had injected N50 billion into the scheme.

Respondents to Daily Trust's enquiry were cynical about the real intention of the scheme and whether the government has the political will to drive the policy to success, and sustain it thereafter.

Mr. Olu, a motorbike engine oil seller said he does not believe in any of the banks because they are all complicated and he does not want to be cheated or deceived.

To him, all the banks are the same.

"In fact some are fake?" others say they have been duped by some banks that claimed to be microfinance banks but are not because they ended up disappearing overnight with the money of poor business people."

According to a hairdresser at Kubwa in the Federal Capital Territory (names withheld), she was duped by a certain microfinance bank that opened close to her shop and persuaded her to open an account with her but not long after she opened the account and saved up N20, 000.00, the bank suddenly disappeared with the money of its customers, "it is a big loss to me," she said.

Managing Director of Peace Microfinance Bank Dumebi Ideh said although micro finance banks have been through difficult time in terms of public awareness on the roles of micro finance banks, the bank is slowly gaining acceptance among business people although much needs to be done.