NET microfinance launches operation, plans credit support for farmers, MSMEs

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The management of the newly launched NET microfinance bank has disclosed its plans to provide credit facilities and financial literacy for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and farmers as it commences operations in Dawaki community, in Abuja.

The Managing Director of the Bank, Saidu Yusuf, while speaking with journalists during the launching, noted that the bank seek to provide financial services to the unserved and underserved small business owners in the community.

“The concept of NET microfinance bank was conceived two years ago, because we observed that in the entire Dawaki, there is no commercial or microfinance bank, this is why we decided to establish this here. And before we did that, we conducted survey to understand the businesses here so as to better meet their needs.

“We discovered that most of the businesses here are micro, small and medium enterprises and they are confronted with challenges of not just savings but withdrawals. So this is what we seek to address.

Furthermore, Yusuf said there are efforts by the bank to introduce agricultural services, to farmers in neighbouring communities.

“We also discovered that many people in neighbouring communities are into farming, so we are trying to meet their needs, not necessarily in cash but through the provision of farm inputs this way we will ensure that funds are not diverted.

“We are looking to provide farm inputs such as seeds, and pesticides, we are making arrangements with them and opening accounts with them to provide these supports.

“For the MSMEs, we are training them on basic business practices, we discovered that many of them do not have an understanding of cashflow, so we will give them points on sales (POS) machines for their businesses.

“This is will help them track their cash flow, our aim is to ensure that we get the unbanked and underbanked to be financially included. This will also help them save, and know the size of their businesses, and determine what they need to expand,” Yusuf added.

The Chairman of NET Microfinance, Kolawole Idiaro, regretted that the community with a population of over 500,000 do not have any presence of a commercial or microfinance bank.

He said the bank was launched in order to reduce the burden of the community to have access to financial institutions where they can transact their businesses with ease.

Furthermore, he said the bank is deploying technologies such as mobile App, mobile networks USSD and seamless banking experience in order to meet the expectations of the customers.

“Net microfinance bank is in Dawaki for a very strategic purpose. in this whole area, there’s no single bank, so they are excluded from banking services. For them to access bank sevices they will have to go to Kubwa or Duste.

“So we picked this area because we see a population of almost 500,000 people living in this axis. We are bringing banking services to the unserved and underserved people in this community. Our service is not going to be like other microfinance banks, as we are launching today we have mounted two ATMs out there.

“So if we if we close business by regulatory time, the bank is still running and they can access our services, through the ATMs, because we have instant debit cards for customers, and they can acces our mobile apps,” he noted.

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