By Sunday Ojeme, Punch On the Web –

In spite of the dwindling fortune of the microfinance sector in the country, a former Minister of Finance, Mrs. Nenadi Usman, has called on the relevant authorities to deepen the sector within the continent.

Usman, who lamented the late entrant of the poverty alleviating financial system into the continent, also expressed the belief that the capacity of operators of microfinance banking would go a long way in ensuring that the goals of empowering the people and moving them out of poverty were not lost.

Usman made the declaration in Kaduna during the Central Bank of Nigeria’s microfinance certification programme training for managing directors and senior staff of microfinance banks.

According to her, ”I am passionate about microfinance as a poverty alleviation tool and any opportunity I have to demonstrate this is a welcome development.

“Africa is a late starter in using microfinance to fight poverty. Given this reasons, I believe that structured training like this microfinance certification programme needs the support of all to succeed. As managing directors from microfinance banks in three of the core states in North West Zone, I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to remind you that the country needs so much from you to make a success of its programmes.”

Reminding the operators in the sector that microfinance bank was different from commercial banking, she listed the major objectives of microfinance schemes to include an end to exploitation of the poor caused by expensive informal credit, provision of small loans to poor people at relatively lower cost as compared to other accessible formal bank loans, financing of economically and socially viable projects which cannot be financed otherwise, and empowering women within households as decision makers and in society through active economic participation, among others.

She said, ”My experience in government and social work has taught me that providing credit and savings outlets to the poor can be a powerful and efficient tool for poverty elimination. Looking at famous success stories from India, Bangladesh, Kenya and other parts of the world, it would be easy to conclude that microfinance can be a solution to rural poverty in Nigeria. If this must happen, we all have a role to play.

”From my observations while working as a minister of finance and interacting across the continent, a speedy and cost-effective way to stimulate economic activity among Africans is to bolster the kinds of income-generating activities they already practice. If an individual is in retail business, as many are, it is most helpful to make certain he has an adequate inventory and a large enough variety of products to meet his or her customers‘ demands. For those involved in animal husbandry or agriculture, it is most helpful to assure them that they have enough financing to weather seasonal fluctuations in income.”

She said that basic finance of this kind was currently in very short supply, adding that though most Africans dealt with small sums of money regularly, they may never come into contact with a bank throughout their entire lifetimes.

The former minister observed that complete lack of access to financial services for so many people stunted development, saying this was why only a few people who lived in cash-mainly economies ever progressed beyond bare subsistence.