Lawmakers Canvass Robust Funding For NIRSAL MfB

• Seek reprieve for COVID-19 loan beneficiaries
• Note difficulties in disbursed funds recovery

BY EDMOND ODOK – Left for the Nigerian Senate to decide, reprieve may come the way of Nigerians and small businesses that accessed the NIRSAL Microfinance Bank (NMFB)’s 500 billion Naira loan package as part of the COVID-19 intervention funds.

The loan was part of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s Targeted Credit Facilities (TCF) offered to households and businesses across the country to cushion the effects of the then ravaging pandemic.

In a move seen as somewhat for the public good, some Senators opined that the current harsh economic situation and the criteria under which the loans were issued to Nigerians have made funds’ recovery from beneficiaries quite difficult.

Consequently, their submissions favour an arrangement where the loans should be considered as grants with the CBN encouraged to give fresh and additional funding that will enable NIRSAL meet its mandate delivery obligations to more Nigerians.

These were part of exchanges when the Managing Director of NIRSAL MFB, Abubakar Abdullahi Kure, visited the National Assembly (NASS) recently to brief the lawmakers on the bank’s mandate execution so far.

Specifically, the Chairman Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, in his intervention, noted that the obvious difficulties being experienced in the loan recovery process have made it imperative for relevant financial authorities to consider reviewing the package as grants to respective beneficiaries.

Addressing issues around the disbursed funds, Senator Akinyelure said; “To me, NISRAL gave out these monies as grants to Nigerians because I don’t see how you are going to collect over N500 billion back from the criteria required for the acquisition of these loans.”

“Since recovering this money will be difficult for NIRSAL because of the time it was disbursed, let us request that CBN give them fresh funds” that would be given to persons they can easily engage and be in a vantage position to recover the funds from with marginal interest rate, he said.

Further claiming that about N180 billion of the amount “outside is gone”, the lawmaker said; “We can’t wait until it is recovered before another fund can be disbursed”, adding; “Countries like the US gave their citizens free money over four times during the pandemic. So, for this Agency to meet its loaded objectives, fresh funds should be released to them”.

He therefore canvassed continuous robust funding of NIRSAL MFB to enable its credit facility become easily accessible to more MSMEs operating across the country.

While praising the bank’s management for a job well done so far, Senator Akinyelure said the nation needs the institution to be properly funded given its nationwide network and accessibility for quick and affordable facilities with less stringent conditions.

Akinyelure, who represents Ondo Central Senatorial District, also touched on the bank’s operational structure, advocating that its existence should be detached and differentiated from CBN as the regulatory authority for the nation’s financial sector.

With a promise of positive inputs to the Senate in amending the existing law, particularly on divorcing its source of funding from the CBN’s Bankers’ Committee and establishing fresh operational criteria, the Senator tasked the bank’s management on making submissions that would enlighten the National Assembly as it tinkers on the best way forward for the bank.