By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Senator Ayo Akinyelure, has called for more funding of NIRSAL Micro- Finance Bank to ensure adequate credit facilities for MSMEs operating in Nigeria.
According to the Senator who is representing Ondo Central Senatorial district, the criteria under which the loans were granted to Nigerians has made recovery very difficult.
Commending the management of the bank for doing a good job, the Senator however expressed reservations over the recovery of over N500 billion loan disbursed to both the MSMEs and household categories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Managing Director of NIRSAL Microfinance Bank, Abubakar Abdullahi Kure, was at the National Assembly to brief the law makers on the operations of the bank.
Speaking during the session, Senator Akinyelure, said, “To me, NISRAL gave out these monies as grant to Nigerians because I don’t see how you are going to collect over N500 billion back from the criteria required for the acquisition of these loans.
“With these, if there is any recommendation or way forward that the management feels they can enlighten us on, they should put it out, we will go back to the Senate.
“Since recovering this money will be difficult for NIRSAL because of the time it was disbursed, let’s request that CBN give them fresh fund so they will be able to give it out to persons that they can recover it from. About N180 billion outside is gone, and we can’t wait until it is recovered before another fund can be disbursed.
“In countries like the US , they gave their citizens free money over four times. For this agency to meet its loaded objectives fresh funds should be released to them”, the Senate stated, adding that NISRAL objective was a good one, and advantages over other micro finance houses.
