Business
RIMA Urges CBN To Relax Regulatory Requirements On MFBs
Some participants at
the Rivers State Microfinance Agency (RIMA) workshop have stated the need for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to relax some of its regulatory requirements that inhibit the growth of Microfinance Bank (MFBs).
This was made known in a communique issued at the end of a three-day workshop on “scaling up micro-enterprises to SMEs in Port Harcourt recently and made available to The Tide.
The communiqué noted that this had become necessary because of the critical roles MFBs play in the survival of MSMEs which is the benchmark of economic growth.
It also called on CBN to incorporate the MFBs into the e-payment system for ease of transaction with their customers from any part of the country, adding the need for the apex bank to “make the conditions for accessing the N220 billion MSME fund less stringent in order to fund SMEs.
“The Special Project Vehicles (SPVs) should be allowed to warehouse and disburse the funds and render periodic reports to CBN. The market should determine the interest rate, as CBN and state governments share in the risk of the fund 50/50”.
The workshop which was organised by RIMA in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDDP) also noted in the communiqué the need for “RIMA to scale up its activities in order to stimulate the scaling up of micro-enterprises to SMEs by creating models for funding SMEs.
It said that the state government should give RIMA more latitude to operate in the public domain by amending its enabling law to access funds from other public and private sources.
The participants commended RIMA, UNDP and the resource persons from Citadel Premium Bridge for the capacity building workshop which they said served as an eye-opener to the better ways of growing the small enterprises.
Lilian Peters