Ongoing reforms in Nigeria’s micro-finance environment could attract potential foreign investors who are reportedly in talks with the National Association of Micro-finance Banks (NAMB), the umbrella body for 901 micro-finance institutions.
BusinessDay reports that the potential investors who are said to be motivated by the reforms, which are expected to transform the sub-sector, include companies from Germany and France.
The reforms include a proposed increase in capital base for micro-financiers to N100-million and N20-million for urban and rural-based firms respectively. This is against the N20-million flat rate for the unit microfinance and N1-billion for the states’ microfinance.
Although details of the review of the policy guidelines are yet to be released by the central bank of Nigeria, sources at the apex bank say that close monitoring and corporate governance are key factors in the policy.
One investor,
PlaNIS, a subsidiary of France's PlaNet Finance Group, has earmarked $160-million for investment in micro-finance banks in the country, and has so far advanced $1-million (N150-million) to one micro-financier.
‘We want to invest in more microfinance institutions and we are trying to look at viable institutions that can benefit from one of our partners, says Gaelle Bonnieux, and investment analyst with PlaNIS,
