By Jabiru Hassan, Kano.
An economic analyst and current affairs commentator Malam Magaji Aminu has called on the Kano state government to investigate all monetary transactions that were carried out by the state owned Microfinance banks in order to ensure that they are making impacts in the economic progress of the citizens.
He made the call in an interview with our correspondent in Kano, adding that MFB’s were established to improve the economic progress of the people and to bring financial institution close to the residents at both rural and urban areas.
Malam Magaji noted that Kano state government has done a commendable work in the establishment of additional banks in the state to ensure that Kano citizens benefits from soft loans in order to boost their small and medium scale trades but some of such MFB’s are not doing what is expected from them.
” if you ask people about the services of Kano Microfinance banks, many people would surprise you by giving you comments about their activities, and from what we observe, the banks have politicised their services to please the politicians that are around the bank’s catchment areas, but it is good for Kano government to constitute a high powered committee in order to investigate all MFB’S so as to ensure that they are put on the right way”. He added.
Daybreak news in a chat with a senior staff of a government’s owned microfinance bank on the condition of anonymity can report that some MFB’S in Kano are working outside of their regulations. The respondent said that many of the banks were not working in line with regulations as “majority of those who benefit from the loans are not those who were recommended to collect, so there is a great challenge in this regard”.
Our correspondent who interviewed some people that have applied for loans told Daybreak news that ” we applied for little amount but there is no sign that the loan would be given to us despite that we are making petty bussines in our communities, but we always see top politicians collecting the money and using them for personal programmes which is a slap to MFB’S recommendations,so we are calling on the Kano state government to prove and investigate all monetary transactions that were carried out by all MFB’S to ascertain their performance”.
