“As long as
you are economically active, we are there to support, that is the drive of
MfBs, no age policy limit implemented by banks but you are assessed by your
ability to engage in
economic activity,” said Chairman, Accion MfB, Mr. Patrick
Akinwuntan. Meanwhile, there are three categories of people in the banking
analogy: the banked, under-banked and the unbanked.
There is no
age limit for accessing loans from Micro-finance Banks (MfBs) as is perceived
by entrepreneurs who intend getting one for their micro, small or medium
enterprises.
Describing
the analogy, Akinwunmi said, “In each of our major cities, you have three
categories: the banked, under-banked and unbanked, the under-banked is such a
large population, they have a bank account but they don’t have access to
financial services. He went further to say that there are lots of differences
between the two.
For example,
he said, “If you earn less than N100,000 per anum and you walk into a traditional
bank and say I need support for X or Y, they will tell you stories, but if you
come to Accion MfB, we have the ability first, to understand that, the fact
that you earn less than N100,000 per anum does not mean you do not have the
capacity to engage in financial activities and improve your life your self and
from that background we are ready to support you.
That is why
the average loan in our company is just about N100, 000 and if you look at most
other big financial institutions, average loans are close to a million or two
but here we are talking of micro loan.
“So even in
bigger cities where we are operating, we are meeting the needs of the
under-banked and the unbanked, we are really opening the doors for access to
financial services to people who are low income earners but very active in
building a future for themselves and that is what we are here to do,” he said.
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