Nigeria: North Worst Hit By Poverty - CBN

from All Africa

Vanguard (Lagos)

Umoru Henry
Abuja

MOVED by the plight and poverty nature in the Northern part of the country, the Federal Government yesterday promised that more emphasis would be laid on that part of the country, even as it lamented that despite the various fight against poverty in the country, the Northern part of Nigeria remains predominantly poor.

Addressing the 2006 Annual Microfinance/Entrepreneurship Awards and International Microfinance Conference in Abuja, Governor of the Central Bank (CBN), Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo said the end of next year, over 10 banks in Nigeria will have a capital base in excess of one billion dollars ($1b).

Oceanic Bank International PLC during the event emerged as the Best Bank in the area of sponsorship and encouragement for the Small and Medium Enterprises and Equity Investment (SMEEIS) with eighteen Financial Institutions licenced as Microfinance banks.

Also the event which drew dignitaries from the banking sector, the public and private sector, the academia as well as the manufacturing witnessed the honour for two PDP Presidential candidates in the forthcoming 2007 election, Alhaji Musa Yar'Adua and Donald Duke as they were recognized by the Central Bank of Nigeria for their various efforts in the areas of microfinance and entrepreneurship.

According to the apex bank governor, the Nigeria banking sector is now the fastest growing in Africa and one of the fastest in the world. He said that a total of 120 Community Banks with paid up capital above the threshold of N20million have been trained on microfinance business model to facilitate their conversion to Microfinance Banks, adding that on the 6th of November, the CBN concluded 381 conversion plans for banks, even as he said that the problem with Nigerians getting microfinance grants was the lack of adequate skill and experience that is needed to utilize the fund and make success of the business they invested the grant into.

He said that the fight against poverty and the quest to make Nigeria one of the 20 largest economies very soon would not be realized if Nigerians are not captured in it.

"The bank is forging ahead in its determination to develop a pool of articulate and well focused entrepreneurs through the setting up of one Entrepreneurship Development Centre (EDC) in each of the six geo-political zones in the country. This will compliment the efforts of other relevant agencies in the country."

Noting that it is important to address the problem of knowledge and skills gap of would-be clients of the microfinance banks and reposition them to engage in profitable banking habits, Soludo lamented that the Northern part of the country seems be lagging behind, adding that" more emphasis will be paid to the Northern part of Nigeria because poverty, absolute poverty is predominantly more in the North than any other part of the country".

In her speech, Minister of Finance, Mrs. Esther Usman- Nenandi who represented President Olusegun Obasanjo urged the banks to address the issue of having special grants for the women in the country, as they are the most vulnerable to the scourge of poverty, explaining that the call for the implementation of the microfinance policy by the government will be more profound if the plan that the private sectors should be the driving force behind to achieve.

"The experience of other countries show that while women are sometimes overlooked, they can be a major driving force in the development of the microfinance sector; so any special encouragement they receive will not be wasted. "This administration is working to ensure that the common man is able to feel the impact of the improving economy. The government is investing heavily in core sectors of the economy such as power, water, health, education, agriculture and transportation. The 2007 budget places a major focus on transportation, in particular, railway, roads and inland waterways."

During the awards ceremony to honour those behind the success story in the banking sector, Mr. Donald Duke of Cross River State received the best Small and Medium Enterprises Equity Investment Scheme (SMEEIS) award while Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua took home the Best Governor award in agricultural financing under the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund.

According to CBN, Duke was honoured for his efforts in opening up new development areas and initiating a world class integrated business resort through the enlistment of the support of public and private partnerships and SMEEIS.

"For his patriotic zeal in assisting the farmers to have access to credit, thereby contributing to the upliftment of agricultural and ensuring food security," CBN also said the Yar'adua deserved the award as the best ACGSF Support Governor.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) received the award of the Best Donor in Microfinance Institution Building.

CBN assured that UNDP, outside its regular support to the sector, was also implementing a project on sustainable microfinance development in Nigeria with various components and providing support for the training of three breakthrough microfinance institutions in the country.

Speaking to journalists on the award given to the Oceanic bank as the Best bank in the support and funding of SMEEIS, an excited Managing Director, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru promised that the Bank would continue to support the small and medium scale.

"We will also continue to support the micro that has now been given so much impetus. We are working towards it and this is the only way we can open up the internal sector. You've heard the story that the minister of finance told. Somebody who is employed, yet thinks because he's not wearing a white collar like you and I, feels that he is not employed so these are the areas that we need to work on to bring them out and measure them statistically and add to our bottom line.

"We all need to support this sector to actually help ourselves to grow as a nation. It has been proven that attention should be paid to that area. But all of us in this sector must do so. The Nation is a big nation and here we have loads and loads of opportunities. Our prayer is that God should open our eyes to the opportunities and let us have the will and the strength to pursue them and begin to create value as individuals. The banks have been faithful to setting aside the 10% but now that we are fewer, most of us are actually working harder on this sector", she said.

The conference is expected to come to an end today in Abuja after which a communique on the way forward will be jointly issued by all the participants.