The year
2017 started on a good note even though the nation witnessed economic pressure
which led to high cost of products and services and harsh operating environment
for businesses and organisations across every sector of the economy. The
Microfinance Bank (MfB) sub sector was not left out in the year, as it also struggled
to surmount the challenges presented to it by the economic recession that
overwhelmed the country.
Early
in the year, the Minister of Finance, Mrs.
Kemi Adeosun, directed the Central
Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to implement the requirement for Bank Verification
Number (BVN) to account holders in the MfBs to facilitate the federal
government staff verification exercise. Meanwhile, the CBN extended the BVN
enrollment to December 31, 2017 instead of July 31, 2017 due to the various
challenges encountered in the early stage of deployment of the joint CBN/NIBSS
support to members of the National
Association of Microfinance Banks, NAMB. Director, Other Financial
Institutions Supervision Department, Mrs.
Tokunbo Martins, announced the extension, saying that all customers without
BVN linked to their account would no longer be entitled to debit operations
effective from January 1, 2018.
Also,
the Development Bank of Nigeria, was
established by the Federal Government, as a wholesale development finance
institution to provide sustainable financing through eligible participating
institutions, which will in turn lend to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
MSMEs for the development of that segment. Three institutions, Fortis Microfinance Bank Plc, LAPO
Microfinance Bank Limited and NPF
Microfinance Bank Plc got the first set of loan disbursement of N5 billion
each for on-lending to about 20,000 entrepreneurs operating in the MSMEs sector
of the economy.
To
enhance financial inclusion, the apex bank granted an approval-in-principle to Inlaks, a financial technology company,
to operate as a super-agent in the nation’s financial services system. Inlaks
is a leading system integrator in Nigeria and Sub-saharan Africa. The aim is to
ensure that informal workers in Nigeria have access to affordable financial
services through its agent network which will address social challenges in key
areas such as health insurance, credit accessibility, savings, wage payment,
among others.
Managing
Director/CEO, Inlaks, Mr. Femi Adeoti,
said Inlaks would partner CBN to deploy a unified information technology
platform for about 1000 Microfinance Banks in Nigeria. “The
landmark project which is ongoing will be implemented under the auspices of the
NAMB,” he said. (Vanguard)
No comments:
Post a Comment