By POVIDENCE OBUH

The Managing Director of Asha Microfinance Bank Limited, Mr. Aminul Haque Bhuiya, has said that adopting a simple operation model would fast track the growth of MFBs in Nigeria.

Bhuiya made the statement at a seminar where he spoke on the topic “Lending Methodologies and Product Developments in MFBs” organized for credit and marketing staff in the industry.

He said,  “For Nigerian MFBs to grow, they must adopt the simplified model as those in Bangladesh where operations are on the low side. Asha is a leading MFB in Bangladesh, and in Bangladesh, we are not extravagant. We don’t use luxuries; customers seat on bench when they come around, no TV set, no executive chairs and air conditions etc.

“Loan assessment and monitoring is easy in Bangladesh because of the simplified model of operations the banks have adopted.” He pointed out that Nigeria is a very good market for the sub-sector and also a good place for micro-finance operations compared to that in Bangladesh.

According to him, “In Nigeria, most females are directly involved in the business. They do businesses without interference from their husband. They are not depend on their husbands, this is the basic difference between Bangladesh and Nigeria.

“Bangladesh women depend on their husbands but the Nigerian women do not fully depend on their husbands. If you give them loan, they will handle it themselves, they will not hand it over to their husbands, but in Bangladesh they hand it over to their husbands.”

On his part, the Zonal Chairman South West Zone, Mr. Olufemi Babajide, said that the banks have changed their operation model by operating the low fix cost.

“We did not operate with the right model. The model we had was high fixed cost but when the Asha came, we now realized that we can operate the low fix cost. The future of the sub-sector is bright, but we have challenges,” he said.

On his new position as the zonal chairman, Babajide revealed that the executive members would meet with all the stakeholders in the south west to improve on the outreach and to deliver its service to micro-finance.

He said, “My agenda is to have a prosperous micro-finance banks in Nigeria, and in achieving that, we need to start from a number of things, like capacity building, secondly we need to really know ourselves.”