Mr Akin Lawal, Managing Director, Nigeria Police Force (NPF) Microfinance Bank Plc., on Monday said that the microfinance sub-sector had huge potentials that could boost the country’s economy.
Lawal, who disclosed this in an interview in Abuja, urged Nigerians to depend less on foreign articles.
“Microfinance business has very huge potential and the most basic thing for us to do is to look inward.
“We should be less dependent on foreign articles that one way or the other always call for foreign exchange and find ways to boost our economy.
“This can be achieved by looking at how creative we can be.
“We should come up with products that will not only be attractive to us but one that we can also export, ’’he said.
Lawal said that the major constraint in the sector was access to funds and cost of doing business, stating that some top MFBs had however found ways to surpass the challenge.
He explained that the NPF had been able to surpass this through funds from the cooperative and welfare insurance of its core investor, being the police force.
He said that the police MFB was set up primarily to look into the welfare of the police as well as the general public.
“We are not limited or restricted to the police alone, but we are also open to the general public who are interested.’’
The NPF boss, however, urged the regulators to provide more support to the sub-sector to enable it to contribute its quota to the growth of the economy.
He said that the regulators support was required in the areas of cost of doing business and access to funds and called for more intervention funds by the government.
