From Uche Usim, Abuja
A microfinance bank belonging to the Nigerian Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL MFB), on Monday, said 881,081 Nigerians and businesses have secured loans valued at over N503 billion from its lending scheme.
The firm has also clinched several awards from over 23 bodies and establishments, for its efforts in resuscitating the economy recently battered by the COVID-19 pandemic; through the provision of liquidity for seriously impacted households and businesses.
NIRSAL MFB in a statement noted that most of the loans were from the COVID-19 intervention fund released by the federal government to cushion the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on households and small businesses.
Figures from NIRSAL MFB shows that the bank has disbursed N503,273,000,000 as loans to 1,053,215 beneficiaries. Some of the beneficiaries include individuals and families whose breadwinners lost their jobs in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is made up of 612,321 households that received loans ranging from N250,000 to N1 million totalling N240,083,000,000; 103,185 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) between 2020 and December 2021 received loans valued at N104,023,000,000.
Households that are Non-Interest Beneficiaries (NIB) of the NIRSAL MFB loans numbering 21,027 have so far secured facilities amounting to N9,091,000,000. Small and Medium Enterprises under the Non-Interest scheme (NIB SME) numbering 2,710 have accessed N1,057,000,000, while 31,067 Agric Small Medium Enterprises Scheme (AGSMEIS) beneficiaries have accessed N116,001,000,000 from NIRSAL MFB in one year.
105,244 Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) successful applicants have received loans amounting to N31,001,000,000 while 5,527 Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) have also drawn down N1,009,000,000 loans.
Awards bagged by NIRSAL MFB’s are; Public Service Bank of the Year 2021 Award to NIRSAL MFB from the National Public Service Awards and Summits; The Most Innovative Fintech Brands from African Award 2020 from African Brand.
Others are: Awards of Excellence were given to NIRSAL MFB by Rotary International and Nigerian Army Officers Wives Association of Nigeria (NAOWA), while the Outstanding Performance toward Economic Development award was delivered by the Sokoto Chamber of Commerce Industry and Mine.
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Wing Association gave NIRSAL MFB, the Award of Excellence and Youth Empowerment. National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and Ahmadu Bello University Zaria gave the bank Awards of Excellence.
At the last Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) Meeting in Abuja, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele said the Committee was impressed with the Targeted Credit Facility (TCF) “for its contribution to alleviating poverty at the grassroot”.
The Committee he said “thus urged the CBN to continue its support through the TCF to ensure that more people benefit from this programme”.
Speaking on the awards, Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of NIRSAL MFB Mr Abubakar Abdullahi Kure said “NMFB makes sure that all the six- geopolitical zones are beneficiaries to promote financial inclusion”.
In disbursing the loans, Kure noted that “women are also highly considered”.
