CBN Collates Database For Microfinance Banks

The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN ), Mallam
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, says the bank will soon inaugurate a database of all
microfinance banks in the country.

Sanusi disclosed this at the stakeholders’ meeting of
Non-Bank Micro Finance Institutions of Nigeria (ANMFIN) in the South-West in
Lagos.

The CBN governor, who was represented by Mrs Udoo Fateh, an
official of CBN Department of Development Finance, said that the apex bank was
committed to the growth of micro finance banks.

While presenting a paper on “The Importance of the Apex Bank
to Micro-finance Development in Nigeria“, Sanusi said that women would be given
priority in every micro-finance scheme.

“Microfinance banks play significant roles in the economic
transformation of this great country.

“When you empower women, you empower a whole family and that
is what microfinance banks should be about,” he said

Sanusi said that women were not “packaging“ themselves
enough to access loans.

He said that women easily gave up in their quest for loans
at the slightest setback.

Sanusi urged ANMFIN to re-position itself by reaching out to
more grassroots people and also encouraging more people to join.

“The association can step forward and stand as guarantor for
any of its members that want to take a loan,” Sanusi said.

Mr Giwa Afolabi, the National President of ANMFIN, said that
the association was re-organising its executive council in the South-West Zone
for improved service delivery to its members.

Afolabi, who is also a member of the Kwara State House of Assembly, said that there was the need to re-position the association to make it relevant to government’s “economic engineering“.

He urged all members to be financially committed to the
association so that they could access credit facilities from the CBN.