Michael Olugbode in Maiduguri
Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum, yesterday, said the effect of decades of the activities of Boko Haram in the state, has left them with banks branches only in two of the 27 local government areas of the state.
Zulum disclosed this while ordering the immediate establishment of branches of Microfinance Bank, as well as ICT centres across the all councils of the state to enable the exchange of old currency notes to the new ones.
The governor gave the directive to the Ministry of Finance and that of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation following the CBN policy on changing of old notes to new ones.
He said there were absence of banking services across 25 out of 27 council areas due to over 12 years of killings and destructions by Boko Haram insurgents.
The governor announced the microfinance measures during an extraordinary stakeholders meeting, which was attended by the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Umar Garbai Elkanemi, represented by the Waziri of Borno, Mustapha Waziri Muktar.
Zulum directed that where possible, the establishment of branches of the microfinance bank should start this week in Monguno and Gwoza Local Government Areas.
“At the moment, we only have two LGAs with banking services and these are Maiduguri and Biu. The distance from most of the local governments to either Maiduguri or Biu is too long.
“Despite a great improvement of the security in Borno, there are still challenges for banks to start operations. Banking is a very delicate industry and I am sure none of them is willing to take the risk of establishing branches in our LGAs for now.
“Therefore, to support our people, Borno State Government has to take the risk. I have directed the ministry of finance to ensure the recapitalisation of Borno Renaissance Microfinance Bank to qualify it to have the capacity to open branches in all the 27 LGAs. This, I believe, will greatly alleviate the suffering of our people,” he said.
He also directed the Ministry of Finance to immediately come up with a template to organise and ensure people in rural communities deposit their old naira notes before the 31st of January deadline.
His words: “I have convened this meeting to discuss how our people in the villages can get easy windows of depositing their money to the bank accounts as stipulated in the CBN new policy. The Ministry of Finance is hereby directed to moblise the people and ensure nobody lost his money. You should facilitate ways through which people can voluntarily deposit their money into the banks in the remaining days.”
Zulum further directed the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation to support mobile telecommunication providers towards improving their network coverage for internet connectivity across all 27 local government areas.
Other people in attendance at the meeting included, members of the Borno State House of Assembly, Commissioners, Advisers, Local Government Chairmen and other critical stakeholders.
