Afribank Microfinance Bank (MFB), has launched itself into the market by setting industry standard with the deployment of biometric PoS (Point of Sale) terminals to ensure that the unbanked are given adequate financial services throughout Nigeria.
Mr. Kashim Olanrewaju, managing director, Afribank Microfinance Bank disclosed that their focus is to grow existing and active businesses and to provide IT system that will lower the cost of doing business for small and medium scale owners.
The biometric PoS terminals enable the bank to open account for customers at any spot with the aid of instant mobile camera and conclude other registration processes at customer convenient place.
“It is taking the bank to the people and it can be done anywhere you have a cluster of people. Our customers are saved the cost and inconvenience of coming to the bank,” Olanrewaju said.
He said the simplified banking model was already in use in Kenya, Bangladesh, India and some other places, adding that the method was appropriate for the less educated because what is needed is a card and thumbprint.
“We have discovered through study that there is a knowledge gap between small scale entrepreneur and the businesses they run. Some of them understand the technical aspect of their business but lack knowledge on growing businesses, so we have established Afribank Wealth Institute to address the shortcoming in the system,” he added.
According to him, studies have shown that over 60 million Nigerians belong to the informal sector and are not serviced with over N700 billion in funds in the informal sector.
He added that the bank is planning to open 80 branches nationwide in order to bring this 60 million Nigerians into the banking community and further develop the economy by creating more money using Afribank microfinance platform and the available resources.
The establishment of the microfinance bank was the bank’s strategic plan to service a particular segment of the nation that has not been serviced in spite of the enormous resources that reside in them.
Afribank has a capital base of N2 billion and a credit line of another N2 billion, making a total of N4 billion.
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