MIC Microfinance Bank gives N100m loan to SME

Friday Ekeoba, Lagos

Modupe Adelaja, DG, SMEDAN

MIC Microfinance Bank Limited has disbursed loans worth more than N100 million to over 1,085 micro and small businesses in Lagos State.

Mr. Temitope Ola, Managing Director and Chief Executive of MIC Microfinance Bank, said the loans disbursed to the micro businesses and entrepreneurs hit N100 million as at August 2007.

Ola explained that the bank’s credit policy reflects a determined effort to empower and grow small businesses in the country. He said MIC Microfinance Bank has the goal of filling the gap created by the absence of sufficient credit to small entrepreneurs and promoting sustainable economic growth and development.

He said MIC hopes to achieve that corporate goal through a commitment to providing access to credit where commercial banks dread to go. The bank reports that the high loan disbursement rate is matched by an excellent loan portfolio quality, with a loan recovery rate of more than 98 per cent.

Ola, the bank’s CEO, attributed the high repayment rate to superior loan recovery strategies which the bank employs to keep default rate at low ebb. Experts have consis-tently said that borrowers in the low end of the market have very good credit record, even though this class of borrowers is usually shut out of the market in mainstream financial intermediation.

The experiences of Gremen Bank, founded by the Bangledeshi, Mohammed Yunis who won the Nobel Prize for Peace last year on the success of the bank, and Accion, the worldwide model of microfinancing, support the view that small businesses are good borrowers.

MIC Microfinance Bank is emerging as a leader in the tail end of the money market in terms of volume of business and global endorsement.

The Kwara State government has picked the bank as a technical partner to provide assistance to the state’s micro credit programme for agriculture and micro enterprise lending. By the partnership MIC Microfinance Bank is commissioned to offer training to credit officers in the states microfinance programme, and give guidance in information technology, credit administration and lending methodologies.

The memorandum of understanding signed by MIC Microfinance Bank and Kwara State government is expected to lead to the emergence of full service microfinance banks in the private sector Kwara State. Three weeks ago the bank rolled out a promo to encourage saving and give savers a chance to win cash prizes ranging from N5,000 to N100,000.

The bank has reported a record response to the promo in the marketplace, describing it as a deluge of new and existing customers who want to take advantage of the opportunity to save and win big. Ola, the bank¢s CEO, said the promo was designed after research had determined the needs of the middle to low income earners, traders, students, entrepreneurs in the country.

NICON Airways to lease planes

Shola Adekola, Lagos

IN its bid to boost operations after resuming from the maintenance break period, NICON airways management has said that the airline is planning to lease two aircraft for its operations.

Managing Director of the airline, Andrew Okunuga said the sum of $2m would be needed by the company to get them on the fleet of the airline. He said in his Lagos office that two of them; B767-300 and 400 are presently in Europe with the lessor based in the United States of America .

“We are looking at wet leased aircraft; we are also looking at December for that, after NCAA would have gone to inspect it, the lessor is in the USA but the aircraft dash 300 and 400 are presently in Europe .

“We will need up to $2m to bring the aircraft to Nigeria ”, he said. He disclosed that the airline would spend the sum of N2m on the desertification where the maintenance of the aircraft would cost up to half a million dollars.

“One of our aircraft is at the maintenance base at Addis Ababa , it is a B767-600, the other one is here, we have to get a slot for the one that is here at Addis Ababa before we can fly this one there.

“The re-certification process is going to take a lot of preparations and documentation, it can cost us as much as N2m because we have to type and change all necessary manuals, we have started that now”, he said.

“Although, we are paying along with the maintenance, but repairing the engine will cost us about N60, 000 in addition to the C check we are making, it will cost us up to half a million dollar because the bird strike incident affected our maintenance calendar , the incident grounded our us ahead of the maintenance period, it affected the engine and damaged it, we are working on it at Addis Ababa”, he added.