Shareholders holders of The Nigeria Police Microfianance Bank (NPF) have commended the management of the bank for excellent performance over the years.
The shareholders who received dividend of 15 kobo, said the performance of the bank has shown that people should not look down on Microfianance Banks,because most commercial banks can not pay their shareholders as much as some Microfianance banks pay.
The shareholders at their 23rd Annual general Meeting in Enugu however call on the management to expand their scope of the bank operations to ensure that it is operating in all the 36 police commands in the country since police is the first beneficiaries both serving and retired officers.
They also suggested that the bank should introduce a police insurance scheme where every police officer that opens account with the bank is given an insurance policy of N10 millions as an incentive to officers and men of the force.
In his address the chairman of the NPF Microfinance Bank, Azubuike Udah, stated that the domestic macroeconomic environment in the year 2016 was marked by several unexpected developments thus. Making it most challenging, that crude oil price fell below USD30 per a barrel.
According to Udah despite the challenging social and economic environment operated “Our bank recorded marginal growth during the 2016 financial year. Gross earning grew by 13.86% from N2.5 bn in 2015 to N2.9 bn in 2016 and profit before tax increased by N16. 63%to N 803 million in N 2016 from N 688.8 million in 2015. Total Assets as at December 2016 stood at N2.9 bn which represents a 0.23%increase over the 2015 figure. loans and advances grew by 15.41%to close at N9.1billion from N7.9bn in 2015 “.
He said that given this performance, for the third time in row, the board has proposed a dividend of 15 k per a share which represents a dividend appropriation of N 342.9million and a dividend pay – out ratio of 63%on profit after tax.
One of the shareholders and former Inspector General of Police, Ogbonnaya Onovo, called on the police officers to patronize the bank, saying that the bank operates better than commercial banks in terms of loan, saying that most of them who retired from police benefitted from the bank.
He noted that the bank personally helped him acquire some properties which he later resold to make marginal profit and urged his serving colleagues to avail themselves the opportunities the police bank offers.
Onovo also delivered Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s felicitation with the AGM meeting, noting that the NPF microfinance bank was one of the ways of enhancing ncing police welfare.
Governor Ugwuanyi pledged corporation with the police welfare schemes and enjoyed them to make the best of their state in the state.
Regis Anukwuoji / Enugu
