Emefiele: CBN-backed MFB will Provide Funds at 5% Interest To spur competition, check abuses
James Emejo in Abuja The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, has disclosed that the NIRSAL Micro Finance Bank (NMFB)
will provide loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at five per cent interest rate for about seven years tenor, as well as a two-year moratorium. NMFB, a brainchild of
the Bankers’ Committee, the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST), was set up with an initial
capital base of N5 billion and designed to boost credit to small businesses by removing identified problems. Emefiele, who said the emergence of the institution would significantly boost access to credit for
SMEs, however, allayed the fears expressed by existing microfinance institutions that the emergence of NMFB could be a ploy to crowd them out of business. The CBN governor argued
that it would help create some form of competitive landscape to checkmate the excesses of existing institutions particularly in the areas of Continued on page 6
NEITI Unveils Oil Blocks Owners by January 2020 ... Page 8 Thursday 7 March, 2019 Vol 24. No 8732. Price: N250
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Court Sacks Taraba APC Gov Candidate ... Page 6
Turn Out En Masse on Saturday to Vote, Buhari Appeals to Nigerians Pledges to work harder in second term Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja urged Nigerians to troop out en masse to cast their votes at the governorship and Houses
of Assembly elections holding on Saturday. The president, in a statement he personally signed, commiserated with families that lost their loved ones at the February 23 presidential
and National Assembly polls, and encouraged all eligible voters not to be complacent on Saturday, but should rather view the governorship and assembly elections as important as the last presidential poll.
Giving reasons why the electorate should troop out to vote on Saturday, Buhari said governance at the state level is closer to them than the federal government and hence, the need for them to
be involved in the process of electing politicians who will govern them in the next four years. Buhari, who canvassed votes for governorship candidates of his party, the All Progressives
Congress (APC), during Saturday election, counseled against ballot stuffing, ballot snatching and other acts that may be inimical to the conduct Continued on page 6
Atiku Gets Tribunal’s Order to Inspect Electoral Materials Alex Enumah in Abuja The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal yesterday granted former vice president, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) permission to inspect and obtain Certified True Copy (CTC) of election materials used in the conduct of the February 23 presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The tribunal also ordered INEC to make available all documents and electoral materials used for the election for the purpose of the inspection.
However, a request by Atiku and the PDP to carry out forensic audit on materials and polling documents was declined by the tribunal. Delivering a unanimous ruling on the ex-parte motion filed by the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku, and the party, Justice Abdul Aboki, held that the applicants’ prayers for scanning and forensic analysis of the election materials run contrary to the provision of section 151 of the Electoral Act. The court also refused to direct INEC to make available all polling documents for forensic analysis as requested Continued on page 8
Again, UK Threatens Visa Ban on Sponsors of Electoral Violence … Page 6
DIVIDEND OF DEMOCRACY… L-R: Orodje of Okpe Kingdom, Felix Mujakperuo, Orhue I; former Delta State Governor, Chief James Ibori; Governor Ifeanyi Okowa; and the state Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party, Mr. Kingsley Esiso, during the inauguration of the newly dualised Sapele-Warri Road, in Sapele…yesterday