The governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN ), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, says the bank will soon inaugurate a database of all microfinance banks in the country.

Sanusi disclosed this at the stakeholders’ meeting of Non-Bank Micro Finance Institutions of Nigeria (ANMFIN) in the South-West in Lagos on Monday.

The CBN governor, who was represented by Udoo Fateh, an official of CBN department of development finance, said that the apex bank was committed to the growth of micro finance banks.

While presenting a paper on ‘The Importance of the Apex Bank to Micro-finance Development in Nigeria’, Sanusi said that women would be given priority in every micro-finance scheme.

“Microfinance banks play significant roles in the economic transformation of this great country.

“When you empower women, you empower a whole family and that is what microfinance banks should be about,” he said.

Sanusi said that women were not “packaging” themselves enough to access loans.

He said that women easily gave up in their quest for loans at the slightest setback.

Sanusi urged ANMFIN to re-position itself by reaching out to more grassroots people and also encouraging more people to join.

“The association can step forward and stand as guarantor for any of its members that want to take a loan,” Sanusi said.

Giwa Afolabi, the national president of ANMFIN, said that the association was re-organising its executive council in the South-West zone for improved service delivery to its members.

Afolabi, who is also a member of the Kwara State House of Assembly, said that there was the need to re-position the association to make it relevant to government’s “economic engineering”.

He urged all members to be financially committed to the association so that they could access credit facilities from the CBN.

SOURCE: Business Day Online