Nigerian President Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua announced the creation of an N50 billion (the equivalent of over USD 426 million) microcredit development fund to be administered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The new fund will be used to provide existing microfinance institutions (MFIs) with funding for credit creation and operational expenses.
The creation of the fund has been expected by the development community for some time and comes as part of Nigeria’s microfinance framework as established in 2005. The announcement took place on February 19th at CBN’s “Banks and the Nigerian Economy” conference and was followed by a request in which Yar’Adua asked states and municipal governments to contribute one percent of their annual budgets to the fund.
This comes after MicroCapital reported on a consolidation of the Nigerian banking community that closed down at least 145 banks leaving 716 MFIs in operation. According to another MicroCapital report, only eight of these providers report to MIX, the microfinance information clearinghouse. The reporting MFIs have a combined gross loan portfolio of USD 12 million with 250,000 active borrowers.
As noted by MicroCapital last month, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was established in 1958 and is responsible for the overall control and administration of Nigerian monetary and financial sector policies, including the granting and revocation of bank licenses. As of October 2007, it reported total assets of NGN 7.24 billion (USD 61.4 million).
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David Satterthwaite
(Visit David's Website)
David brings 10 years of experience in
microfinance management, social
entrepreneurship, non-profit
management/fund-raising and microfinance
investment research.
David is the Chairman and President of
Prisma Microfinance, Inc., a retail
“microbank” operating in Central America.
He is also Chief Editor of
MicroCapital.org, a news and information
service for the microfinance community and
its investors. Each month,
MicroCapital.org publishes the
MicroCapital Monitor, the leading industry
newspaper.
David writes and speaks frequently on
microfinance. He has been a quest speaker
at many events, including: Microcredit
Summit 5+: Panel on Private Investment,
Milken Institute Global Conference, United
Nations Year of Microcredit Symposium for
Wall Street, Chicago Conference on
Microfinance, Harvard Social Enterprise
Conference, Dartmouth’s Business
Sustainability Conference, Wharton’s
Conference on Social Entrepreneurship,
Stanford’s Social Enterprise Club,
Columbia’s Social Enterprise Program and
the Net Impact Annual Conference. Through
his work with Prisma and MicroCapital, he
has been featured or quoted in The Wall
Street Journal, the Boston Globe, “All
Things Considered,” Reuters and
SocialFunds.com. David has been
recognized with the Compaq Computer
Corporation Leadership Award, the City
Year Inspiring Leader Award and the
National Social Venture Business Plan
Competition award for Best Social Impact
Analysis.
David has supported many non-profit and
for-profit social enterprises in different
capacities, including Access Technology
Learning Center, Agora Partnerships,
Bridges to Business, City Year, Fonkoze,
Kiva and National Social Venture
Competition.
David holds a B.A. with Honors in
Political Science from Haverford College.
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