Financial experts? have said that the only way? to eradicate poverty and boost the nation’s economic growth? is for the government, organisations and individuals to put resources? together to develop the microfinance sub-sector of the nation’s economy.????????? They made this remark in Lagos at the International Conference entitled: Micro-financing as a tool for poverty eradication and economic growth in Nigeria .
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Speaking at the conference, the Managing Director/Chief Executive, First Bank, Mr. Bisi Onasanya said that the event which was? set to appropriately address the bank’s bottom-up approach of engendering change from the grassroots.
He stated that the microfinance institutions are strategic to the growth of the economy as the active poor would be empowered to make meaningful contribution to the economy.? “With your participation in this conference, we look forward to generating a visible roadmap for tackling the challenges of micro financing and development, as we make commensurate input to informed policy making, structured financial inclusion, and impactful socio-economic transformation,” he said.
Another speaker, Professor Muhammed Yunus, stated that the success of Grameen Bank in his native country, Bangladesh, has? gone a long way to achieved its objective of addressing poverty in the country.
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Yunus,? however said? that the Grameen Bank has currently given loans to nearly seven million poor people, 97 per cent of whom are women in villages, adding that the bank gives collateral-free income generating loans, housing loans and micro-enterprises loans to poor families and offers a host of attractive savings, pension funds and insurance products to its members.
“In a cumulative way, the bank has given out loans totaling about $6.1 billion. The repayment rate is 98.28 per cent. Grameen Bank routinely makes profit. It is financially self-reliant and has not taken donor money since 1995. Deposits and own resources of the bank today amount to 155 per cent of all outstanding loans,” he said.
He maintained that to create a poverty free world was possible, stressing that poverty was not created by poor people.
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