The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the deadline for compliance with the capital requirements for Microfinance Banks (MFBs) by one year.
This is as a result of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. The CBN stated this in a circular to all Microfinance banks dated April 29, 2020 and signed by Kevin Amugo, director, financial policy and regulation department.
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Consequently, MFBs operating in rural, unbanked and underbanked areas (tier2) are expected to meet the N35 million capital threshold by April 2021 and N200 million by 2022.
MFBs operating in urban and high density banked areas (tier1) are expected to meet the N100 million capital threshold by April 2021 and N200 million by April 2022.
State MFBs are to increase their capital by N500 million by April 2021 and N1 billion by April 2022, while National MFBs are expected to meet minimum capital of N3.5 billion by April 2021 and N5 billion by 2022.