Cooperative: Civil servants to acquire micro finance bank loans

The Nigerian Association of Federal Civil Servants Cooperatives is set to acquire Kogi Micro Finance Bank to drive the process of easy access to Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N220bn for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and to meet the specific needs of cooperative societies in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the chairman of Nigerian Association of Federal Civil Servants Cooperatives, Mr. Onjefu Obe at a press briefing in Abuja.

Onjefu said that in August, 2015, the Federal civil servants through its various cooperatives partnered with Kajaura International Consults Limited, a financial management company working with cooperative societies to key into the conclusion reached between CBN and cooperative societies in January this year.

He said that the association decided to find an efficient Micro Finance Bank, which has less than 5 percent PAR with a good outreach and lending methodologies to channel its applications to CBN.

“Consequently, the association decided to team up with other cooperative organizations to establish a truly Nigerian cooperative bank. The association together with other cooperative societies across the country have expressed a definite interest to acquire Kogi Micro Finance Bank. Once all processes are completed, the bank will be recapitalized to a national bank, to meet the needs of cooperative societies nationwide,” he said.

He said that the bank, upon satisfying all regulatory requirements shall be used to channel all applications to CBN to access the N220 billion MSMEDF, adding that the products of the bank will be tailored towards the specific need of cooperatives in Nigeria.

He said, “The intension of the association is to establish a Nigerian Cooperatives of more than 1,000,000 members and other cooperatives of more than 60 million nationwide to key into the federal government agriculture policy.

“It is also the intension of the association to establish a Nigerian cooperative Micro Finance Bank, as a financial platform that will address the needs of the bottom of the pyramid cooperative societies in Nigeria. This is happening for the first time in the history of this country.”