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| Habila Mutla MD FFMFB |
FADAMA FARMERS MICROFINANCE BANK IS A
BLESSING TO PLATEAU FARMERS-MD
Habila Mutla is the Managing Director,
Fadama Microfinance Bank. Recently, he granted African Drum interview and
explained the reasons for the establisment of the bank as well as its
significance to farmers in Plateau. Enjoy the excerpts.
Sir, could you introduce yourself?
I am
Habila Mutla, the Managing Director of Fadama Farmers Microfinance Bank.
What informed the decision of
establishing this institution?
Having
looked at the program and the journey of the program so far, the Fadama III
thought wisely that it is good that we migrate from there to have our own
microfinance bank which we can see from the name Fadama Farmers Micro Finance
Bank. We did not want to cut off the Fadama and it was agreed with the farmers.
The farmers started by contributing from the little amount from the funds given
to them which was called Fadama Equity Fund and it was from that collection
that metamorphosed into the license of a microfinance bank with CBN.
The
mandatory N20 million was gotten from there which was transferred to CBN and
the license was given. The business started in 2015 and the final license came
in November 2016. The official opening of the bank was in 2017 even though in
2016 there was skeletal service for CBN to see. As I’m trying to explain to you
what Fadama Microfinance Bank is all about, it’s all about the sustenance of
our farmers on the Plateau.
Plateau
State is known for farming. Plateau State is an agricultural state and without
banking services for them, where will our small farmers get help from? If you
go to most of these commercial banks, they hardly give farmers loans and even
if they do, they are waiting for the federal government’s agricultural scheme
that they will give to them, but here all year round the farmers that come are
given facilities depending on the amount and no matter how small the amount is,
we listen to them and give to them.
Is the Bank only for farmers?
Fadama Farmers’ Microfinance Bank is not only
for farmers, even though farmers are the owners of the bank. The bank is open
to everybody irrespective of whatever you do as a business provided the
business you do is a legitimate business.
It
may interest you to know that we have about 15,000 customers today who are
grouped under savings account, current account, adashe account (on a daily contribution), student account and they
all have their own figures. Savings has 11,759, current has 1,689, adashe has 1,563, children account has
22 and student has 4.
How many farmers have benefited from your
services?
A
lot of farmers have benefited immensely. As of now we, have about 100 farmers
who have their loans still ongoing and the amount is about N15 million.
Which of the Agric sector has
benefitted mostly?
I want to tell you that all the sectors that
have approached us have benefitted. I most also add that this bank is a
blessing to this state.
What are your challenges?
There
is no organization without challenge. We have the problem of high expectation for
funds. Everybody wants to key in, but we cannot satisfy everybody at the same
time because of shortage of funds and the type of license we have. We have a
license for one unit which is one location, so we cannot open a branch in a
different location.
We
are calling on our farmers and well-meaning Nigerians to support this bank that
will really stand in the gap for our farmers, irrespective of what you do. I
also want to use this opportunity to appreciate our farmers because most of
them that collected the loan paid back.
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