Deji Fisho is the Executive Director, Fortis Micro Finance Bank. In this chat with Michael Oche, he talks about various issues affecting the micro finance banking sector, its potentials and what government need to put in place to move the sector forward.
May we know what Fortis is all about?
Fortis, is a micro finance bank which essentially caters towards micro small and medium enterprises (MSME). Recently our focus has been on women and cooperative bodies especially in the suburbs.
?
Since you came on board, how would you describe the level of acceptability of micro finance banking in Nigeria?
Micro finance is well suited to communities. There is no doubt that there is a whole lot more work to be done. Nigerians have been receptive. Micro finance formally, if you like, is new. But in an informal sector its not new. Nigerians have been doing micro credit such as esusu, ajo, thrift savings, etc for many years.
?
What do you project as the future of Fortis micro finance bank in Nigeria?
We hope to continue to play in that sector, to continue to add value, make a difference with the women. This is something that I hold close to my heart. It is the development of vocation. Now if you look at the numbers, the numbers claim we have got about 70 per cent of the population that are 30 years and below, that will give you about 99 million Nigerians.
That means we have a lot of young people in the country. If we cultivate that population well, that is potential energy for the country. Now there are different ways to engage that segment of the society – two key areas come to mind. Agiculture and agro-allied. That will be one way to engage the youths. We must grow the agro-allied sector. The agro- allied sector is not limited only to farming.
There is a value chain. It is all –in the packaging –herbicide, seeds, equipment, logistics, seeds. It is a fairly long and deep value chain. Another area where we will engage our youth will be vocation, we got to be able to standardise the vocation– plumbing, carpentry, tailoring, photography, electricians. We must standardise them and encourage young people to go into these vocation whether educated or not. But particularly in educated people so that you don’t have graduates without jobs
?
Are you working on any project at the moment to achieve this?
Fortis is not government. It is going to be government that will lead the framework. But forties supports cooperatives in these areas. We support women in these areas. We train women and youth in literacy, in micro finance, in simple book keeping. But if we are going to be able to make a difference, we got to do a whole lot more because the issue is national.
Because we are speaking of over 90 million youths. In Fortis and in other areas where I’m involved, we will continue to do whatever it is we can do. I mentor youths. I teach free of charge in schools. Just like we are giving back to the society. We are passionate about development in the country
?
How would you assess the health of the banking sector, especially micro finance?
We live in an inter-connected world. Nigeria is no island. So there are all of these issues in the global community which will naturally impact on our financial sector. But we can say the Nigeria financial services sector is resilient. Truth be told, there is not a whole lot that is happening now.
We have seen circles of these sort of things, three, four, five times in the past. We can only expect that with what government is doing, the player will become stronger. There will be integration with the external world between our institutions.
?
What is your view on cashless economy?
I and my team at fortis had to start to review the cashless policy since it was announced, which is what led us to the implementation of what we now call ‘fortis mobile money’. So if we have done all that investment in that area, it means we believe in it. It is the way to go, it is the way of the future. We are not the only country that is doing it.
Countries across the world are doing it. In the west, in the Gulf region, other African countries, Bostwana, Angola, Ghana, South Africa, they are into it. It is the way to go. It’s got obvious advantages for the customer. You don’t have to carry cash. You are not a potential victim of robbery. It makes travel light and easy. It brings down cost for operators in the financial services.
As we are going cashless, you don’t have to always set up bank branches, you sign on agents, who can be super markets, filling stations, eateries, hospitals, post offices and so on. So it will integrate the society. It is expected that it will bring cost down. It is also expected that it will open employment for all categories of people, directly and indirectly. So it got clear advantages. It is the most definite way to go.
?
What does the government need to put in place. Before the take off of cashless policy, considering the present illiteracy level?
Mobile money is not a complicated process. You don’t have to be educated to be able to operate your simple phone. So, to that extent it will work. Government has to strengthen infrastructure– power, ICT infrastructure, telecoms infrastructure. All these will impact on the quality of services that the customers of mobile money will eventually get. And there is got to be public enlightenment and education across board.
Government has to spend a bit more money in advertising and publicising the programme. The truth is that the early abductors for mobile money will be the people in the lower income strata and also the people in the suburbs. Because city dwellers and the elites already have some kind of solution at the moment for their funds. They are going to be the later abductors. Its ongoing, the journey is not a five or 10 years journey, but what is needed is commitment to what we have already started
?
How would you assess the ongoing banking reform?
We expect that the reform will enable the players in the sector to be able to intermediate more, to lend more, to provide more services for the customers at lower cost and accessibility. Those are sorts of things to expect from the reforms. Hopefully in the days ahead, we will see more of the outcome.
?
What has been the challenges so far in achieving these reforms?
Whatever challenge we face as a people, as a nation, they are not unique to us. That is the truth. People have faced challenges, people have overcome. We have got all kinds of example. We have got countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, china. You even now have the Gulf States who are beginning to make impact in the world. You have UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman.
You also have countries in the African continent. You have Botswana, Kenya, and Ghana. What that says to us is that the challenges can be overcome. And not only with money, yes we need some money, but we need will. We need purposeful leadership; we need compatriots who will support positive government policies.
We need a people who will determine and pull themselves and their country from the challenges that we face. We are saying these problems can be overcome. Other people have overcome theirs. So we can overcome ours. Again the statement of the problem is everybody understand Nigeria problem: you talk of power, you talk of aviation, you talk of heath, and you speak of education. But the flip side is that all of these challenges also present opportunities.
It means that anybody who will look at education today, there is opportunity if you look at health, finance, safety and security, education, construction, there is opportunity. As opposed to focusing on the problems, we have got, lets start to think how we can turn the problem around into opportunities.
Nigeria is a big market, 160 million people -a lot of them young and vibrant. We just need to get a couple of things right and this country can easily as it has been predicted, become a top 20 economy by 2020.