Advans–La Fayette Microfinance Bank has secured a national microfinance banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria. A member of the Advans Group, La Fayette was licenced as a financial institution by the apex bank in 2012 and started offering complete range of financial services and means of payment for its customers including savings accounts, current accounts and fixed deposit accounts. With the new licence, it has been authorised to operate nationally.
Speaking to newsmen on the acquisition of the licence, the managing director and chief executive officer of the bank, Guillaume Valence, averred that micro, small and medium enterprises are the major contributors to growth and economic development as well as the first employer in Nigeria. He, however, lamented that they lacked the financial support to develop their businesses. They still lack both the necessary business and financial support to develop their activities. By supporting this population, Advans-La Fayette MFB is contributing to the national objective to reduce financial exclusion rate to 20 per cent by 2020. Moreover, Advans-La Fayette MFB has implemented the international best practices when it comes to client protection principles and contributes significantly to the financial literacy of its clients,” Valence stated.
He added that bank has demonstrated great resistance and resilience to a challenging economic environment and has consistently grown its client base and outstanding loan portfolio over the years.
He further explained that as at December 2018, the bank had disbursed 63,913 loans for a total of N27.9billion, stressing that the group served more than 900,000 clients and employed over 6,800 staffs, with a gross loan portfolio of €880 million and a total of €510 million deposits. Valence added that with its operation as a national microfinance bank, it would be able to deepen its outreach by contributing to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s financial inclusion objective across the country, expanding the provision of microfinance services to Ilorin, Kwara State which would be the first branch outside Oyo State.