NMFB appoints Kure as Acting CEO, CBN Appoints New Directors

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has announced the appointment of Mr. Abubakar Abdulahi Kure as the new acting Managing Director of NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank (NMFB).

Kure replaces Yusuf Phillip Yila who becomes Director, Development Finance of the CBN, effective from January 24, 2020.

Yila succeeds Dr. Mudashiru Olaitan who retires from the bank from January 26, 2020.

The apex bank in a statement further named some new directors including Clement Busari as Director of Strategy Management; Haruna Mustaphah, Director, Consumer Protection; Bello Hassan, Director, Other Financial Institutions Supervision Department; Dr. Ozoemena Nnaji, Director, Trade and Exchange Department as well as Musa Itopa Jimoh who is now Director, Payment System.

NIRSAL MFB, which was incorporated in 2019 and granted a licence to operate in the same year, was set up by the CBN to assist farmers and those in the agricultural value chain access funds with little interest rate.

Its shareholding structure comprises 50 per cent by the CBN, while the Bankers’ Committee own 40 per cent as well as NIPOST which accounts for the remaining 10 per cent.

In March last year, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele disclosed that the NMFB would provide loans to small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) at five per cent interest rate for about seven years tenor, as well as a two-year moratorium.

Set up with an initial capital base of N5 billion and designed to boost credit to small businesses by removing identified problems, Emefiele, had said the emergence of the institution would significantly boost access to credit for SMEs, and allayed the fears expressed by existing microfinance institutions that the emergence of NMFB could be a ploy to crowd them out of business.