By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB) has directed all licensed Microfinance Banks (MFBs) nationwide to update it on their recapitalisation status for assessment and follow-up actions with the regulatory authorities.
This was disclosed by the Executive Secretary of the association, Mr Shikir Caleb, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) revoked the licences of 179 banks for not adhering to regulations.
The central bank had said that it revoked the MFBs licences due to failure to fulfil or comply with the conditions subject to which their licences were granted.
The apex bank said the banks were sanctioned because they failed to comply with the obligations imposed upon them by the apex bank in accordance with the provisions of Banks.
Now, NAMB said that the latest decision was taken in Abuja at an emergency meeting of the leaders of the NAMB after vigorous deliberations on the latest licence revocation action of many MFBs by the CBN.
According to NAMB, the meeting had in attendance the Board of Trustees, the Past Presidents, and members of the National Working Committee.
The association said that the meeting had its main agenda the revocation of the licences of the affected MFBs and how to proactively forestall future negative occurrences 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,” it said.
According to the statement, 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 recapitalization status as of date.
It was also disclosed that leaders also agreed that the association would review the submissions and have a meeting with all MFBs this Thursday (June 1) in Abuja “with a view to collating all submissions for engagement with the management of CBN.”
Commenting on the licence revocation, the NAMB National President, Mr Joshua Ukute, rued the ugly development and promised that the “leadership of the association would 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 microfinance Bank 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,” he added.
