The first national financial inclusion strategy to be inaugurated in Maiduguri, Borno State Friday (today) will utilise post offices and not the conventional banks, the promoters of the programme, has said.
This initiative is aimed at bringing banking services to the un-banked.
The Bankers’ Committee had explained on Tuesday while announcing Borno State for the pilot scheme that the successful implementation of the project in the state would help in guiding banks in replicating it in other states.
Kuru said in Lagos on Thursday that due to the current security situation in Borno and the high cost of setting up bank branches, the promoters of the financial inclusion strategy had opted to use post office branches since they were already on the ground.
Kuru, who justified the choice of the state for the pilot programme, said studies had showed that only 2.5 per cent of indigenes of the state earned above the national minimum wage of N18,000 monthly, while about 87 per cent of the population lived in rural areas.
The overall target of the programme is to raise the level of financial inclusion in the state.
Only about 280,000 out of a population of five million people in the state currently have access to financial services.
Women, youths and rural dwellers, currentlyexcluded, would be integrated into the financial system, Kuru said.
Apart from using the post office structure, he said the promoters of the project would rely heavily on indigenes of the state, who would be adequately trained.
“If we succeed with the project in Borno, it will be extended to other states of the federation; and we are convinced that we will succeed,” he said.
The project, according to him, is a joint initiative of the Federal Government, Borno State Government, the Bankers’ Committee, relevant security agencies, Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Nigeria Communications Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Protection Council.
Kuru also spoke on the performance of the three bridge banks: Mainstreet Bank Limited, Keystone Bank Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited. He said their respective boards and managements had returned them to profitability.
He said, “When we came on board, our mandate was to run the banks profitably with strong financials. I can categorically say that the three banks are strong enough to compete with others.”
Using Enterprise Bank as an example, the managing director said his team had been able to grow deposits by over 27 per cent, while the industry average was 15 per cent; loan book, by 200 per cent, with average industry rate being 16 per cent; and asset base, by 26 per cent; and return on investment by 20 per cent over seven per cent industry average.
Kuru said his ultimate desire was to reduce the number of people coming to the banking hall to transact business to just five per cent, while the others would use technology platforms to transact their business.
To aid this, he said the bank had invested heavily in modern Information and Communication Technology solutions that would make it convenient for people to carry out banking operations in the comfort of their homes and officers, and through their mobile telephones.
On the cash-less initiative, whose pilot is currently running in Lagos, Kuru said it was the ultimate, but added that the country needed to enforce the law on dud cheque issuance in such a way that issuers would be sent to jail within three weeks.