Apparently disturbed by the revocation of 179 Microfinance Banks’ licences by the monetary authorities early last week and the negative implications for its financial inclusion drive, the National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB) has directed all licensed MFBs nationwide to update it on their recapitalization status for assessment and follow-up actions with the regulatory authorities.
The decision of the umbrella body of all licensed MFBs in the country was sequel to vigorous deliberations on the latest licence revocation action of many MFBs at an emergency meeting of the leaders of the association held in Abuja.
The meeting, which had in attendance the Board of Trustees, the Past Presidents and members of the National Working Committee, had as its main agenda the revocation of the licences of the affected MFBs and how to proactively forestall future negative occurrence in the MFB sub-sector of the financial system.
Following the review and deliberations on the licence revocation matter, the top leaders of the NAMB directed that the various State Chapters should categorize the affected micro lenders into MFBs that have fully re-capitalised but yet to be approved by CBN; MFBs that have not been fully re-capitalised but had ongoing discussions for funding; MFBs that were yet to re-capitalise; and MFBs that have long closed shop
According to a statement issued by the Executive Secretary of the NAMB, Mr. Shikir Nuhu Caleb, on the decisions taken at the emergency meeting, the leaders further advised any MFB that had fully re-capitalised but yet to be approved by CBN to present its submissions to the Secretariat with a summary of its recapitalisation status as at date.
He stated that thereafter, the leaders also agreed that the association would review the submissions and have a meeting with all MFBs this Thursday in Abuja “with a view to collating all submissions for engagement with the management of CBN.”
Commenting on the licence revocation saga during a post-meeting chat with journalists in Abuja, the NAMB National President, Mr. Joshua Ukute, rued the ugly development and promised that the “leadership of the association will continue to intensify its self-regulation activities in all MfBs nationwide to forestall this type of occurrence.
“We have also mandated the Secretariat of the NAMB to do more by enlightening the public, especially all stakeholders in the association’s financial inclusion drive value-chain with the aim of building confidence in the MfB sub-sector of the financial system.
“As you all know, the MFBs have over the years remained at the forefront of the financial inclusion strategy agenda’s implementation and they will continue to do their best to deepen financial services, especially in remote communities that the big players are not ready to go”, the banker added.
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