NPF Microfinance Bank Plc has announced plans to do a public offer with a view to raising more funds from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) to shore up its working capital.
Akinwunmi Lawal, managing director/CEO, made the announcement during the bank’s 25th Annual General Meeting for the financial year ended December 31, 2018, held in Akwa Ibom.
Lawal said that the bank had completed plans to undergo the much-awaited sale of her shares this year with hopes that the offer would be hugely subscribed since the bank has maintained an unbroken trend of dividend payment for over 20 years.
He said that the bank would proceed to sell its shares to both existing and prospective shareholders after securing approval of the regulatory authorities, adding that the proceeds would be deployed to beef up its working capital, information technology, branch improvement, among others.
However, he said that the bank recommended paying a dividend of N114.332 million which translates to five kobo per share, explaining that N81.416 million would be transferred to various reserves as there was a need to conserve money for the future developmental projects.
Also, the bank’s total asset increased to N17. 597 billion from N15.952 billion recorded in the previous year, representing 10.31 percent increase. The loans and advances improved by 17.59 percent to N10.593 billion in 2018 from N9.008 billion in 2017.
According to Lawal, “The deposit liability moved from N9.126 billion to N10.465 billion showing a growth of 14.67percent which indicated the continued growth of our customer’s trust and confidence in our mission. Our borrowing from various intervention funds increased by 34.08 per cent to N2.078 billion from N1.550 billion and this is accountable for the increase in interest expenses by 34.7 percent.”
Earlier, Azubuko Udah, Chairman of the bank, who also is retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, said that the year 2018 marked the end of the three years strategy which commenced in 2016, adding that plans for the next three years, from 2019 to 2021 had been put in place to position the bank to new height in the provision of microfinance services.
To propel this strategy, he said that the bank was considering to recapitalise by raising more funds from existing shareholders and inviting new investors to have a stake. He added that the bank would also leverage on technology through alternative banking channels to increase market share significantly by growing organically, the number of her customers.
Udah said that the bank changed its banking software in the year under review to a new core banking software T24 under the National Association of Microfinance Banks Unified Integration Technology platform (NAMBUIT) of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
The NAMBUIT project is a tripartite partnership involving CBN, Inlaks (the service provider) and the NAMB with the aim to deploy a single core and agent banking solution for microfinance banks in Nigeria.
The project is to spur significant growth in the microfinance sector by improving access to accurate, timely operational and financial reports. Udah disclosed that NPF MfB was nominated by the CBN for the pilot implementation programme on the software by reason of her leading position in the microfinance space, saying:
“The deployment of the T24 Core Banking Software was marked with various challenges, significant of which was the late filing of quarterly returns including the audited financial statements to regulatory agencies,” Udah said.
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