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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
In a bid to boost Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and agriculture sectors in the country, NET Microfinance Bank, has commenced operation to make more fund available to entities within the space.
Its Managing Director, Saidu Yusuf, told journalists yesterday during the launch in Abuja, that the firm would also provide financial services to unserved and underserved small business owners in the community.
According to him, the firm was conceived two years ago, “because we observed that in the entire Dawaki, there is no commercial or micro finance bank, this is why we decided to establish this here.
“And before we did that, we conducted survey to understand the businesses here so as to better meet their needs.
“We discovered that most of the businesses here are micro, small and medium enterprises and they are confronted with challenges of not just savings but withdrawals. So this is what we seek to address.
He added that efforts were ongoing to introduce agricultural services, to farmers in neighboring communities.
“We also discovered that many people in neighbouring communities are into farming, so we are trying to meet their needs, not necessarily in cash but through provision of farm inputs this way we will ensure that funds are not diverted.
“We are looking to provide farm inputs such as seeds, pesticides, we are making arrangements with them and opening accounts with them to provide these supports.
“For the MSMEs, we are training them on basic business practices, we discovered that many of them do not have understanding of cash flow, so we will give them point on sales (POS) machines for their businesses. “This is will help them track their cash flow, our aim is to ensure that we get the unbanked and under-banked to be financially included. This will also help them save, and know the size of their businesses, and determine what they need to expand,” he said.
Also, the Chairman of the Bank, Kolawole Idiaro, explained that a community with a population of over 500,000 do not have any presence of a commercial or micro finance bank.
“Net microfinance bank is in Dawaki for a very strategic purpose. in this whole area, there’s no single bank, so they are excluded from banking services. For them to access bank services they will have to go to Kubwa or Duste.
“So we picked this area because we see a population of almost 500,000 people living in this axis. We are bringing banking service to the unserved and underserved people in this community.
“Our service is not going to be like other microfinance banks, as we are launching today we have mounted two ATM machines out there.
“So if we if we close business by regulatory time, the bank is still running and they can access our services, through the ATMs, because we have instant debit cards for customers, and they can access our mobile apps,” he said.
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