By Nnabugwu Chizoba (Charismatic Chizy)
Economic development
and financial inclusion activities in every society envisage array of efforts
at both the Public and Private sectors targeted at improving commercial
activities and the delivery of financial services. Financial inclusion, in
particular comprises of making funds available to a very large percentage of
the population, including the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, especially
the segment of the society classified as “Active
poor”.
From available
records, among which is the statistics provided by the International Labour
Organization (ILO) in 2013, which says that the informal sector in Nigeria constituted
over 17 million businesses and enterprises, and contributed about 60 percent of
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) , it makes sense to say that any
programme that targets the Micro business operators, as well as the other
economically active low-income households in Nigeria, is healthy for her
development: economically and otherwise.
The reasoning
above holds firm, especially when one considers that in the face of the stated statistics,
Nigeria’s economy still ranks very low when compared against most economies,
including the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, Indonesia, and China) nations. Issues such
as very high unemployment rate, poverty, closure of businesses and cases of idle
youths roaming the streets, are still prominent in Nigeria, while the attendant
negative consequences confront the country at rapidly increasing rate, each day
that passes.
The above
unpalatable story of the Nigeria’s state gave birth to Fundhills. The organization
is a means to change the ugly narratives and put the country on the part of
economic self-sufficiency and sustainable development. The managers of Fundhill
are aware of the huge benefits that members stand to reap from the expertise of
the leadership, who are also poised to deploy the tools of entrepreneurship training
and coaching to enhance the capacity of members to expand their business
interests and generate higher returns from their efforts.
Pursuant
to the realization of her financial inclusion objectives, Fundhill has
developed novel initiatives and patterns to impact her members significantly. This
is being achieved through provision of financial services that include issuance
of loans at relatively affordable rates. The large appetite of the managers of
Fundhill to create and design tailor made and impact oriented products and
services to meet the needs of Micro businesses and enterprise operators in
Plateau state, who hitherto, have been excluded from the financial market,
stand them out, in the midst of other similar operators.
The products
and services of Fundhill are centered on contributing significantly towards improving
the activities of micro business operators and the households. The idea is to
position the Active Poor to make more meaning out of life; to generate higher income, expand or diversify
their operations, employ more hands and advance the growth and development of
Plateau state and Nigeria through multiple value-addition activities and
programmes. According to the managers of Fundhill, their effort is to chisel
out the encumbrances that prevent the Active Poor from accessing financial services.
This assistance in their own view will ensure that the focused group takes
their economic survival beyond mere wish and desire to something very tangible.
Speaking to
our Micro Finance reporter, who paid him a visit in his office at Rukuba Road, in
Jos, the capital city of Plateau state, the Chief Executive of Fundhill, Mr.Yemi
Adebo, says:
“We are a multipurpose co-operative society, established to coordinate the micro finance needs and challenges
confronting the young professionals,
market men, women and entrepreneurs. Our focus is to build a very convenient,
more reliable and
relatively affordable pool of private funds for micro business operators and investors, who
depend on our products and services to transform their businesses and take
their destiny into their own hands. Additionally, we are poised to contribute
significantly to the economic development of Plateau state and Nigeria in
general.
“Our targets are people with whom we share common bond. They include the young professionals,
market men and women, emerging entrepreneurs
and all those desirous of putting their knowledge,
skills, and energy to work. We desire that our members will satisfy their
economic needs,
as well as actualize their socio-cultural
and academic aspirations
through our services, activities and initiatives”.
Responding to a question on the
legal status of the organization, Mr. Adebo, snapped with confidence, saying, “FundHill
Microfinance Multipurpose Cooperative
(FMMC)
is registered with the Plateau state government and her activities are regulated
by the
Ministry of Commerce.
On government policies and how
they are keying in and helping to realize them, the Chief Executive, Mr. Yemi
Adebo, said:
“Our involvement in this field
of activity is to fast track the reach and also
extend the impact of Nigeria’s national
development strategy, the Vision 20:2020,
and the twin policy Financial
Systems Strategy 2020 (FSS 2020), established by the federal government of Nigeria”.
With a lot of excitement in his
voice Mr. Adebo added “Through joint effort and network membership, we are demystifying
the gruesome
funding challenges
which by default excluded large chunk of people who genuinely deserve attention from the financial
sector services. Our emergence has strengthened their dream, as well as reinvigorated
their ambition to develop their ideas, empower and realize their entrepreneurial vision of engaging meaningfully into business
or investment activities.
“Our philosophy
is simple. There is
awesome power
and amazing possibilities in collaborative efforts. We
believe that people will
achieve more working together as a community than dissipating energy as individuals”. He said.
In
a related development, Mr. Adebo alluded to the fact that “Entrepreneurs
and
SME owners can achieve their dreams with or without the exorbitant traditional bank loans.
We
are convinced that there is a post-modern approach to thrift and credit cooperation; hence we
are deploying extensively our expertise as seasoned financial sector operators
to develop and deepen the
impact of Micro businesses in the economic development of Nigeria”.
“The urgent
need to bring positive and sustainable changes for the benefit of the Micro
enterprise operators in Plateau state prompted our emergence. Our greatest
motivation is the believe that young professionals, market
men and women and budding entrepreneurs in the state deserve to invest their skills and energy rather than scrambling for scarce white colar jobs in multinationals and
sometimes none existent opportunities in
government ministries, departments and agencies.
“We are firm in our conviction, and determined in the pursuit of our
self-imposed mandate of creating a micro finance ecosystem were the young
professionals, market men and women and other active households can create chains
of formidable employment opportunities”.
Mr. Adebo concluded.
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