By Obinna Chima

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has said it had become a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), a global network of central banks and policymakers in over 60 developing countries.

The AFI, was established to enable people living on less than $2 a day to have access to formal financial services by 2012. AFI is managed by GTZ and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its members are central banks and other policy making bodies in developing countries.

CBN Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, dropped this hint at the maiden edition of the First Bank of Nigeria Plc’s international conference titled: “Micro-Financing: As a Tool for Poverty Eradication and Economic Growth in Nigeria,” held in Lagos on Monday.

Sanusi, whose speech was presented by the CBN Director of Development Finance Department, CBN, Mr. Paul Eluhaiwe, said  the feat will help drive the country’s quest for financial inclusion in the country.

He pointed out that a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) 2009 report had ranked Nigeria, 142 out of 172 on the list of poor countries in the world, saying that micro-finance banking was introduced in the country, to alleviate poverty.

“Poverty-entrapped people are not always able to get out of it on their own. The fact that they are poor, does not mean that they cannot be involved in economic activities. Micro-finance Banking, has been identified as a strategy to help them out. In Nigeria, a lot of interventions have taken place and yet it has not yielded the desired result. The essential targets of the micro-finance policy are the rural poor,” he added.

He also said that the apex bank had embarked on an awareness drive, to ensure that operators fully understand the objective of micro-finance banking, even as he added that the banking watchdog, was collaborating with the UNDP to develop a strategy for the sub-sector.

The Managing Director, FBN Microfinance, Mrs Pauline Nse, reiterated that the focus of micro-finance banks was completely different from that of commercial banks. She also warned that a micro-finance bank should not be viewed as a ‘national cake.’

A former Vice-Chancellor at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, stressed the need for government to pay more attention to the operations of micro-finance banking in the country, for effective monitoring of their activities. He also canvassed for a special regulation for the sub-sector.

“If they say that 35 million Nigerians are unbanked, then we are sure that 33 million of that population are the poor. I think that it is important that micro-finance regulation should not be lumped with other functions of the CBN.” he added.

On her part, the Managing Director, Accion Micro-Finance Bank, Mrs. Bunmi Lawson, argued that the micro-finance industry was still very small and at its infancy stage and should be encouraged to grow.

Source: ThisDay