ODAHIEKWU OGUNDE, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Government has pleaded with individuals, local government councils and other institutions to transact business with its own bank, Izon-Ibe Micro-Finance Bank.
The Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, made the appeal on Monday at a meeting with council chairmen, labour unions and management of the bank in Government House, Yenagoa.
In a statement by his media aide, Doubara Atasi, the deputy governor said the call for increased patronage was to enable the bank to actualise the rationale behind its establishment.
He explained that the bank was established by Seriake Dickson’s administration in 2015 to promote self-reliance, saving culture and entrepreneurship in the state.
Ewhrudjakpo, who called on traders, civil servants and retirees to make use of the state-owned financial institution, assured them that the government would continue to give the bank all necessary support to enhance its viability.
Describing the setting up of IMFB as part of the government’s rural development strategy, he noted that the Douye Diri administration had already released a grant of N200 million to strengthen the bank’s capital base.
Speaking on the bank’s request for the migration of the salary accounts of local government workers, the deputy governor appealed for understanding and cooperation among all the stakeholders.
He said: “We are encouraged and motivated by the way the current management of our bank is thinking. And so, we need to do something not to allow our bank to go down.
“Let us, therefore, put on our thinking caps and see how we can look at this issue because it has to do with our own survival. If Izon-Ibe Microfinance Bank survives beyond its current level, it is for our own good.”
In their separate remarks, the Chairman of Southern Ijaw, Chief Nigeria Kia and his Ekeremor and Kolokuma/Opokuma counterparts, Dr Perekeme Bertola and Chief Dengiye Ubarugu, described the proposal of migrating council workers salary accounts to the IMFB as commendable.
They, however, expressed concern about the technical, operational and financial capability of the Microfinance bank to efficiently manage the salaries of over 15,000 council workers in the state.
Kia, therefore, suggested that a technical team of experts is set up to study the feasibility of the proposal and its test-running before full implementation to avoid hiccups.
Earlier, the Chairman, Board of Directors, Izon-Ibe Microfinance Bank, Chief Ayakeme Whisky, said the bank had the capacity to provide banking services to local government workers across the state, including primary school teachers.
Whisky assured them that the bank would provide short-term facilities like salary advances and take the administration and servicing of existing loans procured by local government workers and teachers as soon as their accounts were migrated to IMFB.
According to him, if the IMFB is strengthened through the collaboration it is seeking, it will no longer depend on grants from the government to pay its staff.