The Catholic Diocese of Enugu-owned Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank Enugu (UPMFB) has appointed Rev. Monsignor Anthony Chukwuma Anijielo as its chairman.
Anijielo emerged the new chairman of the bank at the recently held 20th Annual General Meeting where the shareholders unanimously ratified his nomination by the diocese through the Board of Directors of the bank.
UPMFB began formal banking operations on July 22, 1995 and later transformed to a micro finance bank in 2007 when the federal government introduced micro finance banking in the country.
Anijielo succeeded Msgr Prof Obiora Ike who held the position since 2008, having taken over from the pioneer chairman of the bank, Gabriel Akachukwu, a former President of the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA).
A statement, which described Anijielo as an experienced administrator, one time secretary of Enugu diocese and currently the Parish Priest of St Leo the Great parish, Federal Housing Estate Abakpa Nike Enugu (where Ike was the immediate past Parish Priest), said he was ordained a priest in Germany in 1980, having studied Theology at the Leopold Franzen University in Innsbruck in Austria and Specialised in Fundamental Theology. He is from Ebe in the Udi local government area of Enugu state.
He has been closely associated with the bank and has been on its Board for some time now. He has three books to his credit and edited a couple of others and contributed many articles to other publications.
“Being an experienced administrator and very conversant with the bank, Msgr Anijielo is well positioned to inspire confidence, provide quality leadership, give the bank right direction and take it to greater heights. The former chairman of the bank, Msgr Prof Obiora Ike is now in Geneva Switzerland, where he heads a world body on Ethics.
“The establishment of the bank was primarily for poverty alleviation among the poor in the society, especially the Church’s poor faithful, in tune with the Church’s social teaching of economic evangelisation,” it added.
