Mr. Friday Nwokolo, a development finance expert, is the Head of Business Development of FCMB Microfinance Bank (MFB). In this interwiew by Sam Nwaoko, he suggests ways to tackle, the growing poverty among the poor.
You are in a vantage position to understand the interplay between financing and general financial and economic trends. Coming from this vantage position, how would you describe Nigeria’s economic situation looking at the grassroots?
The truth has to be told: Nigeria is currently not enjoying the best of times and this is evident in the number of bad loans that banks and financial institutions are recording currently. Just a year ago, the price of diesel was around N300, but today you know how much it is and this has as ripple effect on every other thing that is happening within the economy. It is not just diesel alone, this is happening in every sector of the Nigerian economy, in fact every sector of human endeavour in this country. So, we have tried to do more by trying to reach more people who are living in abject poverty and who need help. When trying to finance these people, sometimes you find out that they take these loans and try to live off it without applying it to any business. They eat from it and take care of domestic issues without applying the loan to any business and it thus becomes difficult for them to repay the loans. I will say that the economic situation in the country is appalling at this time and it has affected almost everybody.
What kind of help do poor NIgerians need? Those living below the poverty line, what kind of help do you think they should get?
Help can come in different forms. There are those who just need food to eat and because they are hungry, a bag of rice would suffice. If you meet those kinds of people and supply their immediate need, you have become a saviour. With the rice, a family can survive for a few weeks but that is like giving somebody fish without teaching him how to fish. So, what we need to do is try to find out how we can assist, how we can change their lives by finding out what they could do to make life better for themselves. In some cases, we have had to mentor; we’ve had to give them funds. It is important to note that people need all the support they can get to grow their business and ensure that they are not left without help.
Does that vision of providing support and helping to grow business align with your microfinance meets practitioners (MMP) model?
MMP came as a result of the gap in knowledge that exists among practitioners in the microfinance industry. In the industry you see key players not being professionals, not understand the policies and not understanding the different models. They are just playing like blind people and it is not their fault because the system had made it so. They work in institutions that do not budget for training, some of them got there by chance while searching for jobs. So, Microfinance Meets Practitioners (MMP) came as a means of helping these young professionals get better at the job and to understand the sector better and to develop themselves. That led to MMP Season One which took care of that and afterwards, a lot of demand came from other professionals who missed the first season and from then, it has become an annual event. So, we are in discussion with some international organisations to inculcate what they do into MMP training modules and engage them as partners who can help deepen the knowledge within the financial inclusion sector.
The economy has its impact at the lower wrung of the ladder where you operate. What are the practical things you think the government can institute as policies to help mitigate the effect of the economy on the citizenry?
Rather than give stipends to those people, because stipends will not help them, they should identify areas of their interest. Do they like farming? Is it trading? What do they love most? Once you identify that, provide them with the knowledge or training that they need to excel in that particular field. Then, make them a start-up; given them the initial finance that they need to start-up this business that they have chosen to do. Then, mentor them; watch them grow. Some private sector players are doing something like this, like the Tony Elumelu Foundation but not at the bottom of the pyramid. So, if government can identify the needs of the poor, give them training, provide them with finance to start-up and mentor them, I believe that some of these issues would be reduced to the barest minimum.
Looking at Oyo State, where do you think that the government can come in for the people considering what you have in mind?
Sincerely, I think that the government is doing well especially in infrastructural development, building of roads, lighting, and making the city look beautiful and so on. However, I’ve not heard much noise around women and youth empowerment and that is one area I sincerely think that the governor should look into. If he is doing it, I think he is not making enough noise about it. So, I think the Oyo State government will need to do more in either attacking poverty through women and youth empowerment or let the average Oyo State citizen know that there are certain projects going on and that they can key into these projects. I will suggest that Governor ‘Seyi Makinde should allocate certain resources to women and youth empowerment because they are the key drivers of the economy, so to speak.
Why are you are referred to as “a micro finance or financial inclusive specialist and group lending apostle”?
Over the years I have paid more attention to the bottom of the pyramid clients, those who live below the poverty cap; those defined by the United Nations as living below $1 per day. In Nigeria, we have so many people in that category. A 2018 financial report showed that we have over 36 million people living below the poverty cap. So, I play in that environment; I like to impact life through what I do through my projects both personal or official and that has been quite rewarding in the sense that when I see customers talking about the impact that small development finance has brought to them as individuals and as families; the kind of hope and aspirations that they have built in the process; the kind of life they have been able to give to their children in the process, it gladdens my heart. So, I am a development finance expert who plays within the financial inclusion sector.
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