At least 500 licensed Microfinance Banks (MfBs) under the aegis of the National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB) have called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to involve them when formulating and implementing key policies and measures for the financial sector.
This was one of the recommendations contained in a communiqué the MfBs issued after an emergency meeting of the NAMB Board of Trustees (BOT) in Abuja.
According to the list of CBN licensed MfBs as at 30th June, 2021, there are 876 of them operating in the 36 states and Abuja.
In the communiqué signed by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mallam Ibrahim Bamalli; and the BOT Secretary, Dr. Dan Ogun, the board also tasked the member-banks on internal cleansing and self-regulation while also embracing digitisation of services.
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NAMB, although lauded the CBN naira redesign policy, said the implementation created some challenges for MfBs that threatened many of the member-banks. The umbrella body said this was due to the non-integration of MfBs in the CBN policy process even though those banks are effective at the grass roots.
“One of the negative impacts of the exclusion of the MfBs from the policy was the high incidence of non-performing loans it triggered in the sub-sector as most of the bank’s clients were cash dependent,” NAMB stated.
The association has directed its National Working Committee to work out the implementation plan to digitise all MfBs for e-channels of banking operations to forestall such cash crises in the future.
MfBs have been also advised to actively participate in and comply with all CBN programme activities and file their reports as required by CBN while increasing their customer sensitisation.
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