Intervention funds: Bank customers, NANTS seek MFBs’ involvement

Miffed by the recent alleged abuses in the disbursement of poverty alleviation funds by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, some leading banking and development experts have called on the federal government to include Microfinance Banks (MFBs) in the disbursement of such funds in order to achieve its objectives.

Reacting to the reported public finance abuses in the ministry and its implications for the poverty alleviation drive of the government, a seasoned banker and National Chairman of the Bank Customers Association of Nigeria (BCAN), Dr Uju Ogubunka, told journalists that, “There shouldn’t be any doubt that MFBs will best serve the purpose of disbursing the funds to the poor in the country.”

Ogubunka, a former Registrar of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), justified his stance based on the “Micro Finance Policy, Regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Nigeria” issued by the CBN in 2005, stressing that, “MFBs stand shoulders higher among all the other types of banks/other financial institutions to be given the opportunity to handle financial services/affairs of poor people especially, at the rural areas of the country.”

Similarly, the President of the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANT), Dr Ken Ukaoha, said the saga demonstrated the existence of deep-rooted corruption in the public service that should be frontally tackled by the present administration in order to alleviate the prevalent multidimensional poverty in the country.

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Specifically, Ukaoha, who is also a legal expert and smallholder farmers’ capacity building proponent, pointed out that channeling social intervention funds through the MFBs would ensure transparency and accountability in the disbursements “as these MFBs are guided by monetary principles in all areas of their operations. More so, accessibility of the funds at the local level where small-scale farmers predominantly operate will be more guaranteed.”

In his remarks, the Director General/CEO of the Association of Nigerian Exporters (ANE), Prince Joseph Idiong, harped on the need for the use of MFBs as preferred final channel for disbursement of poverty alleviation funds, saying that this was desirable “when considering their reach to most local areas. Though there are still some LGAs in the country that do not have MFBs or DMBs.”

Commenting, a former National Chairman of the Association of Small-Scale Agro-Producers in Nigeria (ASSAPIN), Hajiya Amina Jubrin, said, “The MFBs are best positioned to efficiently disburse these funds in order to achieve the objectives.”