PRESS RELEASE...Monday 22nd August 2005

An Industrialist, Mr Chris Okoye, has called for multiplication of microfinance institutions in Nigeria to grant loans to poor people.

Okoye made the call in Enugu at a forum aimed at proposing desirable policy changes in current funding of small businesses by finance institutions in the country.

The forum, which was organised by the African Institute for Applied Economics (AIAE) had “Policy Challenges for Microfinance Design and Practice” as its theme.

Okoye, currently Chairman, Havard Trust Savings and Loans, Enugu, explained in a paper, “Challenges of Microfinance Supply and Administration” that poor people should have more access to loans from finance institutions.

He recalled last year’s United Nations report which revealed that 70 per cent of Nigerians live below poverty line and stated that policy initiation be targeted at delivering credit facilities to poor people and small businesses.

He said that microfinance restructuring must remove government from the day-to-day management of such funding.

“We have had microfinance institutions in Nigeria but they have not quite responded actively to requirements of what they should actually do in the rural areas where the greatest number of Nigerians reside”

He called for a “formidable institutional framework” as guarantors to microenterprises loan beneficiaries and the creation of an enabling environment for such business to thrive or live above poverty levels.

In his presentation, Dr. Kalu Oji, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, said a good microfinance policy should enable the poor “to move out of poverty through cycles of loans and repayment”

Oji in a paper entitled “Policy NEEDS in the micro-finance sector of Nigeria: The Missing Angle” also suggested that minimal regulations should also be exercised by such microfinance policy.

AIAE in the News……...

African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu was on Sunday 3 rd July 2005 reported to have been at the @ the forefront of efforts to put Nigeria’s debt into clearer perspective both for Obasanjo and the International World. The cover story captioned:

‘DEBT CANCELLATION: The Facts behind the Deal’

Written by Samuel Famakinwa of ThisDay Business desk highlighted the Institute as one of the major contributors towards setting the ball rolling for the campaign for debt relief:

Paragraph of the second caption: The Campaigners

…………….But the efforts to put Nigeria’s debt on the International front burner began on May 18 and 19, 2001, the federal government, in collaboration with the Charles Soludo led African Institute for Applied Economics [AIAE], Enugu and with financial support from the UK Department of International development[DFID] organised an International conference in Abuja at the end of which a major study titled: The Debt Trap: Towards A Sustainable Debt Strategy, was published.

The conference was coordinated by three people who edited the work: Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, who as Vice President and Corporate Secretary of the World Bank Group had taken a leave of absence a year earlier (2000) to serve as Economics adviser to Obasanjo on an informal basis; Prof. Charles Soludo, Executive Director of AIAE, who was hen consulting for World Bank, IMF, UN agencies and USAID and Dr Muhktar, who was also on leave of absence from the world Bank as senior economist.

The distillation from that conference helped Obasanjo not only to ascertain the nature and details of Nigeria’s debt portfolio but also put the debt issues in perspective………..

Culled from Page 33 of ThisDay Sunday 3rd July 2005.

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SUSTAINABLE GROWTH UNDER NEED
In a presentation during the ‘SUSTAINABLE GROWTH UNDER NEEDS, the Role of Renewable Natural Resources’ workshop organized by the African Institute for Applied Economics, Enugu on 22^nd June 2005 at Chelsea Hotel Abuja, Prof Eboh opined that the essence of renewed land could not be underestimated as Agriculture and forest sectors

Were the key to NEEDS targets.

Looking at the extent to which the Federal Government’s policy on agriculture and forest was compatible with NEEDS growth targets, Eboh said Nigeria loses N300 to N375 billion yearly from poor crop management. He stressed that the renewable natural resources is crucial to the Nigerian Economy, adding that Agriculture holds the key to meeting the targets set by NEEDS.

Essentially, he canvassed a new strategy in the nation’s agricultural management as yields have been relatively stagnant and in some instances, declining. Also at the forum, an Environment Adviser with the UK department for international Development in Nigeria, Jean-Paul Rose reaffirmed that “the output of these sectors is dependent upon productivity of key assets including land and soils, water, forests and fisheries.” He added: “And for the majority of Nigerians who live in rural areas, their heavy dependence upon natural resources is extremely significant. The vulnerability of rural to adverse changes in both quantity and quality of natural resources assets is a grave concern. The key point is that Nigeria is extremely dependent, whether you are looking at natural or household level, upon its renewable natural resources assets.”

He regretted, however that both the quantity and quality of these assets had declined in recent years. Together, the NEEDS and state level SEEDS place emphasis on the contribution of natural resource based activities such as agriculture to contribute towards enhanced economic growth. There are big assumptions behind such aims. The biggest is that Nigeria’s lands and soils, her forests, her water resources, her fisheries will continue to deliver productively in the face of ever increasing pressures including poor land management and population” he said.    

Culled from Emeka Anuforo’s article – “Nigeria loses S121m to gas flaring, says World Bank expert” Abuja. The Guardian Newspapers Monday June 27^th page 17.