EWT Microfinance Bank Limited is a
financial institution licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and insured
by the National Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) to provide microfinance
banking services, with physical presence in Abuja. The Bank was a brain child
of Men Fellowship, and largely promoted by ECWA Wuse II since 2007, before the
coming on board of other investors. The recent change in the capital structure
led to the reconstitution of new Board of Directors, the restructuring of the
management and the entire organization.
Following the recent transformation in
capital structure, the bank has initiated large scale financing of SMEs, in
addition to focusing on providing micro financing services to low-income
persons organized into cooperatives. This new business model entails that
cooperatives and their members be enrolled as account holders with the bank. By
end of 2027, it is expected that at least 1,250,000 active customers, organized
into 50,000 cooperatives, would be on-boarded.
Consequently, the bank in conjunction
with some foreign faith-based development/donor agencies, ACCORD Cooperative
and Cooperative Financing Agency of Nigeria (CFAN) is working out measures that
will promote community-based empowerment schemes to the active poor in large
numbers. This will naturally translate to creation of wealth, organic growth in
small businesses (especially farming and Trade), promotion of financial
inclusion for the unbanked and poverty alleviation in a large scale.
These valuable services will essentially
require lending to somewhat indigent persons in large groups, offered to them
at single-digit interest rate. Though, the interest margins for these funds are
low, the high volume of the loan facilities will certainly set the bank on the
path of remarkable profitability and sustainable growth. This would be possible
since the source of cheap finance would be financial interventions, government
or corporate social security benefit schemes, international development/donor
agencies. Such funding arrangements however require agile, efficient and
transparent operations.
EWT MFB is also being positioned to turn
great ideas of others, especially the youths, into fortunes that would create a
win-win and shared value relationship, thereby creating an unending market
opportunities to thrive on.
The vision:
The vision of EWT Microfinance Bank is: To be the best
Microfinance institution in Africa for contributing to poverty reduction,
gender equality, economic growth and supporting sustainable communities.
Mission:
EWT Microfinance exists: To provide community-based
microfinance services, improving quality of life, creating wealth and promoting
economic development.
Core values:
The core values of EWT Microfinance Bank
include: Integrity, Innovation, Customer Focus, and Development
(Integrity-ICED).
Products and Services offered:
The Bank offers both banking and
non-banking products and services. They include but not limited to:
Current accounts for both
corporate and individual entities, Savings account, Target account, Fixed
deposit account (with attractive interest rate), ASUSU account, Children Trust
Fund account, Social Investment Account (SIA), Idea gestation & nurturing
account, Pilgrim account, Festival account, Artisans account, Salary account, Cooperative
scheme account.
Others are:
Term loan Overdraft, Structured loan, LPO finance, Embassy loan, Hire
purchase, Special Agri-business financing, Women and youth empowerment scheme, Retirees’
empowerment scheme, Training and Financial advisory services
For more
details of our Board of directors’ profile please visit:
CREATING WEALTH ANDPROMOTING ECONOMIC
EMPOWERMENT
COUNTDOWN: It is our pleasure to meet
you and we congratulate you on your emergence as the Ag. Managing Director of the EWT Microfinance
bank. Please, for the benefit of our readers all over the country, kindly tell
us about yourself as a form of introduction, your name, education, work experience
and life convictions.
Ag.
MD: The pleasure is mine meeting with you. My name is Adams
SaniOhize. I am a Nigerian. I went to LEA Arigoin, Okene Local Government Area
of Kogi State for my school living certificate and graduated in 1989. My SSCE
was obtained at Ogori-Magongo Government Secondary in 1995. In 1999 I had a
sound Diploma in Marketing at the University of Jos and afterwards I went to
University of Abuja for my first Degree in Political Science. My Master’s
degree is currently underway. I am a
Chartered Banker (MCIB). I have also attended numerous Management and Financial
courses with certification.
COUNTDOWN: EWT
Microfinance was in the news some years back in such a quite negative narrative
and restoring its glory has been a challenge so to say, so far. Can you briefly
tell us one or two things that have changed to improve public confidence since
your assumption in office? Would the measures forestall a reoccurrence of such past
ugly incidences that dragged the image of the bank down in the eyes of the
stake holders i.e your depositors and investors alike?
Ag.MD: Quite
unfortunately, the bank was in the said negative narrative as a result of
unsecured lending, which threw it into liquidity, capital and reputational
crises. So many initial investors had their investment almost eroded. As a
result of this, major stakeholders withdrew their support and patronage. But
the narrative has radically changed. At EWT MFB today, we do not grant
unsecured loans; even if it is the Senior Pastor of ECWA Wuse II for instance,
who applies for loan, that application has to go through five layers of
approval: the account officer, the head of Credit, the Control Person, the MD
and the Board. We have also recently added our legal team to it, who ensures that
every security pledged has legal viability. All these have brought about a new
regime of having almost all our loans performing as stipulated by the
regulatory guidelines.
What
we are also doing currently is to ensure we meet with critical stake holders
and opinion influencers, especially within the ECWA community, to tell the
story of our recent successes.
COUNTDOWN: Aside
the founders of the bank, can you tell us a little about the other investors of
the bank and the bank’s capital base as of today?
Ag.
MD: Apart from the original founders of the bank, we now
have major investors who have seen the potential of the bank to create wealth
and a force to reckon with in the industry in the nearest future. Such new
investors, having committed their personal resources, are either on the board
or very critical stake holders monitoring regularly, the activities and
progress of the bank. These new
investors and many others are willing to bring in more investment to raise both
the authorized and paid-up capital to N1 billion. If you were at the last AGM
of Accord Cooperative, you would have heard when Mr. Emmanuel Atama, the
Executive Secretary of Cooperative Financing Agency of Nigeria (CFAN) stated
that they are willing to adopt EWT MFB as their sole Microfinance bank to
transform it to a national MFB.
COUNTDOWN: From
the statement of the business model of the bank, the 2027 target of at least
1,250,000 active customers sounds humongous, can you tell us again what you are
doing currently to bring the target to pass on or before the set date?
Ag
MD: Without necessarily going into the details of our
strategies to achieving our target as aforesaid, we are collaborating and
partnering with other organizations like CFAN, Accord Cooperative, Keke Riders
Association, etc, to ensure we achieve our set target. We want to pride
ourselves as Cooperatives’ bank.
COUNTDOWN: The
issue of wealth creation is a major one, when considering the framework projection
of a micro finance bank. Can you in a point blank/executive pronouncement tell
us one or two ways you intend to guide customers and intending ones to help
them secure their savings and also prompt them to create wealth?
Ag.MD: Banking
is all about taking funds from surplus side to the deficit side. That is, you
take deposits from amongst your customers and trade with such funds in terms
ofgood credit or loans and other investment portfolio. Any bank that has sound
credit system can naturally create wealth for its shareholders and depositors
in the course of time. The more funds a bank has, the faster it grows in terms
of return on investment. As the Ag Chief Executive Officer of EWT MFB, and
having been around, almost since the inception of the bank and being fully
aware of mistakes of the past, I would ensure we avoid unsecured and emotional
lending. Once we achieve that, the savings and investment of our depositors and
shareholders are secured. We are also building our technology and IT platforms
to ensure all transactions of the bank go through maker-checker rules. That is,
no individual initiates and concludes transaction of any kind. This helps us to
strictly adhere to our layers of approval limits.
COUNTDOWN: Can
you elaborate further on some of your products and services available to would
be customers?
Ag.
MD: The commonest products of a bank are savings products.
We are among the highest interest paying MFB on fixed deposits. This is because
we are able to channel such funds into good loans creation. We are also helping
youths with brilliant ideas to nurture and turn them into wealth. All they have
to do is to send in their business proposals and we study and filter to test
the feasibility of such proposals. Once we ascertain the viability, we can
commit to start-up. We also offer financial advisory services as well as,
empowerment programs.
COUNTDOWN:
In
the face the gloomy economic realities in Nigeria today, what do you think
depositors stand to benefit by choosing to bank with you rather than other
banks?
Ag.MD:
Security
of investment is at the heart of every investor. The re-structured EWT MFB is
solid and healthy. No matter the amount of funds you have with us, you have
access to them whenever you desire, even at a short notice. Our turn-around
time is also helping us to woo good number of customers. Unlike before, you can
now control your transactions from the comfort of your home or office with our
NIBSS and other App platforms.
COUNTDOWN:
In
your opinion, how would you differentiate between CORE mandate of a commercial
bank distinguishing same from that of a micro finance bank?
Ag.
MD: The core mandate of microfinance banks is primarily
targeting the micro sector of the economy, which is predominantly controlled by
low income, poor but active populace of our society. MFBs are to cater for the
unbanked and the under banked, and enlarge their financial frontier. But the
truth is that even commercial banks have encroached into the micro sector as
the core mandate of microfinance banks; this is just as some MFBs are trying to
compete with the commercial banks by engaging in large loans to an entity or
individual, thereby deviating from the core target market. At EWT MFB, we try
as much as possible to blend the two. With the remodeling of our business,
which is to focus on cooperatives, we would be a major player in the micro
sector of the economy in few years ahead.
COUNTDOWN:
Can
you confidently say that as at today, Nov 2024 the EWT Micro finance bank is
healthy and has the capacity to defend its entire mandate as a bank?
Ag.
MD: The immediate preoccupation of any licensed and deposit
taking financial institution is to ensure the safety of customers’ deposit by
ensuring they meet daily obligations of their customers. As I said earlier,
reckless lending quickly erodes the capital and deposits of any bank so to say.
At EWT MFB, we do not only engage in clinical lending, we match such lending
with customers deposit to ensure continuous meeting of daily obligations.
Secondly the present Board and ECWA church have committed enough investment,
which none of us can afford to watch go down the drainage. We have never had
this kind of healthy corporate governance since the inception of the bank. So
to answer your question pointedly, we are not only healthy and sound; we are on
continuous consolidation of some gains made in the past few years.
COUNTDOWN:
Is
there any plan for expansion so as to be able to cater for prospective
customers outside the municipal?
Ag
MD. Our target is to become a national Microfinance bank in
the near future, to serve all Nigerians.
However, technology and IT have made it possible to reach out to diverse
customers even with just one physical office presence anywhere. We will
continue to deploy technology that will allow us have mass market, no matter
where such market is located.
COUNTDOWN:
Any
advice for the Investors/ Board on better means of raising the profile/public
trust of the bank?
Ag.
MD: My advice to our Investors and other critical
stakeholders, especially ECWA community is to rekindle our faith and trust in
our institutions. I understand the trust deficit we have carried for a long
time because of what happened in the past. All that is however in the past
today; this is a new era of doing banking in accordance with the guidelines
stipulated by the regulatory bodies and as re-echoed constantly by the
Board. Once we are consistent in doing
the right things, we would soon regain that trust we needed so badly from the
ECWA community and the general public.
Beyond
the advice, I want to say a big thank you to those who never lost faith in us;
those who gave us second chances. We can simply do all things the best way, by
Christ Jesus who strengthens!
COUNTDOWN:
What
about the banks official contacts and handles?
Ag.
MD: info@ewtmfb.com.ng
07066956754
08036501306
07038773437
07039020799
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