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| CBN LOGO, MALAM SANUSI LAMIDO-CBN GOVERNOR |
MOBILIZATION OF DEVELOPMENTAL CAPITAL FOR DEVELOPING NATION
STATES. FUEL /ECONOMIC SUBSIDY ISSUES /
SURE VS VISION 20:2020 -HOW TO MOBILIZE 3 TRILLION DOLLARS- A CRITICAL APPRAISAL.
THE ROLE OF CENTRAL BANKS IN A DEVELOPING ECONOMY:
The necessity reason de entre of Central Banking concepts is
to be the bankers of last resort, managers of Nations money and sovereign
wealth, as a clearing house etc but then as preached by Dr Ahmed Abdallah- A
former Executive Director of World Bank he theorized that the duties of the Central
Banks will inadvertently shift to encompass mobilization of development capital
for emerging , ambitions young nations states in the 21st century through the
dynamic inventions of various types of marketable financial products addressed
to mobilize rural, urban and international
capital for developmental purposes. And in the context of the above postulation
most Central Banks of developing Nations including that of the Nigeria
Federation fall short of the necessary dexterity in developmental capital
mobilization due mainly to the Keynesian financial planning models that are
based on fiscal driven economic models rather than the more pragmatic market
driven models.- due mainly to the monoculture export regime that is anchored on
exporting primordial raw materials /
minerals for the more developed economies of Europe and America.
It is a well known fact that most parts of the developing
world including Nigeria
are under Banked as the rural dwellers which controls the bulk of the money in circulation
are not assimilated into the organized banking sectors of these countries.
Research has it that about 70% of the money in circulation
in countries of sub Saharan Africa never goes through the banks and the
organized banking systems has only about 25 % share of the money markets of
these countries. So for accelerated developmental capital mobilization of young
Nation states, it is imperative to look inward and develop viable, marketable
and attractive financial products that will seduce the rural dwellers to
participate in the banking systems of developing Nations. A crucial point of
Note is the need to create rural branches of commercial banks and to extend
banking services to the rural dwellers and inner city ghettos and slums where a
sizable percentage of capital, of controlling magnitude circulates.
Whence Chief Executive of Central Banks in developing
Nations, should not be armchair Bankers but dynamic, visionary and inventive
experts that can put up functional plans and a team of qualified personnel, to
mobilize the rural, urban as well as external developmental capital needed for
accelerated economic and industrial growth of the polity.
In this context the question is what types of financial
products will attract rural and inner city dwellers to participate in the
organized Banking system and how do you reach out to them.? This question has
always been the problem of mobilizing developmental capital from that segment
of the society.
Prince Frank Onaivi Ukonga in his book published in 1992,
the seething World- a Functional Approach- invented a system of reaching out to
the rural and inner city ghettos to mobilizing developmental capital for
developing Nations of the world including the Nigerian Nation state.
MICRO FINANCE BANKING:
One of that set of methodology of reaching out to the rural
dwellers postulated by Prince Frank Onaivi Ukonga in 1992, Micro Finance
Banking, was later implemented by a former executive of Planet Finance- Prof.
Mohammed Yunus by implementing the concept of Micro – Finance Bank in
Bangladesh in his Greemar Bank which was successful in the mobilization and
development of the reluctant backward rural dwellers of that polity to enviable
status of today.
THE FIRST AFRICAN/ NIGERIAN MICRO FINANCE [ MICRO CREDIT] BANK:
The First Micro Finance Bank in Nigeria/Africa was
registered by Prince Frank Onaivi Ukonga as African Trust Savings and Credit
Limited [Micro- Credit Bank] in April 2003.This was when Chief Joseph Sanusi
was Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Later Prof. Charles Soludo
became the Governor of CBN and gave this concept a wider interpretation in his
Micro Finance Bank scheme addressed to fix up the displaced personnel of his
Banking consolidation and also to mobilize rural and urban inner city dwellers
for rapid economic development of the Nigeria state.
A decade after I postulated the theories of how to mobilize developmental
capital I set out to implement the thesis for Africa
and the Nigerian Nation state in 2002.
I wrote the business
plan of a Micro Finance Bank [Micro Credit Bank] and took it to the CBN for
approval. At the CBN Alhaji GIWA, Director of Banking Supervision loved the
idea and many of the other directors he introduced me to at the Lagos – Marina
office of the CBN. They decided to give me a note to the Director of Banking licensing
Mr. Oni whose office was in Abuja.
I traveled to Abuja to meet Mr. Oni and he was very good to me but then he told
me that there was no enabling act for him to license me and offered me other
options of promoting one of the distressed banks being offered for sale.
I thanked him for his offer and left back to Lagos. In Lagos I decided to go to
the Security and Exchange Commission who I reasoned should have a small window
into the money market. When I got to there office they said they were not sure
if they had an opening window into the money market, but allowed me into their
library to have access to the enabling act of the SEC. And there I discovered
that indeed they had a small but narrow window into the money market and we
discussed it with their business/ legal experts and they said it was possible.
So we both jointly decided on the name to be Savings and Credit [Micro -Credit
scheme] since we cannot use the word Bank in our nomenclature as it will conflicts
with the CBN. After arriving at the name with Mrs. Rufai and other officers of
the SEC as;- African Trust Savings and Credit Limited [ As my vision was to spread branches all over Africa and perhaps to
Europe, America and other
Developing Nations]- they told me to go to Abuja for the final approval for subsequent
registration with the CAC.
I came to Abuja to meet the Directors
of SEC and the DG then was Dr. Ndanusa. My case was handled by Ms Uneogu also a
Director with the SEC and they approved it as a great idea and offered me
participation in the capital market through the Unit Trust Schemes to be
called- African Trust Power Fund- Subsequently they gave me a letter to the
C.A.C that had earlier rejected registering me for failure to meeting the requirements
of a Banking status on the criteria of the CBN. They had to concur as the SEC lawyers
gave a sound argument about; their window into the money market and that mine
was a pilot program.
At last it was registered in 2003. And I came back to Lagos to set up the
office at Ashade Market and a small branch at Oshodi Market. Soon Governor Raji
Fashola came on board as the Governor of Lagos State and he demolished the
OSHODI Market where the bulk of our customers were trading. This brought a big
set back to us at the head office in Ikeja Ashade Market…but later the Ashade
Market extension where we had the head office was also demolished despite all
our plea to the Governor.
So the credit of the institution that first Africanize the
Micro Finance Concept of Prof. Mohammed Yunus should go to Dr Ndanusa and Ms
Uneogu of the SEC.[ Security & Exchange Commission of the Capital Market.]
Later in 2004 when Prof Soludo became the CBN Governor it
was a big coincidence that Mr. Oni became the first Director of the Micro-
Finance Banking and other financial matters Department of the CBN.
THE PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF MICRO FINANCE BANKS IN NIGERIA
The causality of Prof. Soludo’s micro Finance Banks in
Nigeria was a palliative measure to solve the question of voluntary and
involuntary redundancy in the Banking sector which his consolidation exercise
created and it was a great measure to get the boys busy by giving them
something to do but later it became a viable instrument that contributed its
quota in accelerated developmental capital mobilization for economic and industrial
growth of the Federation which saw an upsurge in the overall GDP of Nigeria but
then the problems associated with the insolvency and distress of most Micro
Finance Banks in Nigeria are the followings;
A ] ARMCHAIR BANKING ETHICS:: Most of the executives of the
Micro Finance Banks are oblivious of the modus operandi of the concepts and
jumped into it with the same attitude of arm chair banking ethics which later
became an albatross.
B] THE ENABLING ACT: The articles of the enabling act that
brought the Micro Finance Banks into being was some what dysfunctional as it
only made a smaller unit of the universal Banking formula excluding the Micro
Finance Banks from the clearing houses of the CBN and from direct Foreign
Exchange transactions. Thereby the Micro Finance Banks began to see themselves
as small Banks and began to compete with the big consolidated banks in all
aspects of the 30% share of organized money market in Nigeria instead
of them to invent marketable products to attract the 70 % money that does not
go through the organized banking sector.
C] DEVIATION FROM THE ETHICS OF MICRO FINANCE BANKING::
Generally for the survival of Micro Finance Banks there is the ethics of being
supported by a donor organization that wants to support the poor. It is the
funds from these donor organization and persons of goodwill that are used to
run the loan and credits aspects of the bank and not the depositor’s fund. But
in the case of Nigeria
they started using the depositor’s funds to trade and give out credit facilities
in a reluctant, resilient economy. Which subsequently led to defaults and
distress?
D] COST OF OVERHEADS: The newly established Micro Finance
Banks lack adequate know-how of the concept of Micro Finance Banking in the
aspects of the international standard practice as the Banking of benches and tables,
bicycles, motorcycle and tricycles.. But rather they went straight to buy
luxury Toyota Camry cars, Mercedes Benz and even Jeeps as well as well
furnished offices with air-conditioners, messengers etc and this lead to its
failure.
E] SALARIES AND PURCHASE INVENTRIES: Soon some of the Micro
Finance Banks began to compete in salaries with the established consolidated
Banks in salary offers to staff and the general overhead cost of running the
Banks shot up to above 10 % allowed in the international best practice. And
this led to distress.
F] OUTRAGIOUS OFFERS FOR PLACEMENTS: Many Micro Finance
Banks began to compete with big banks in order to attract patronage to offer
big interest rate to fund speculators while some of these offers were
outrageous and meeting the task became a problem and distress sets in.
G] INTERNAL FRAUDS & DIRECTOR RELATED BORROWINGS:
The problems of internal fraud and director related
borrowing leading to lots of the evaporation of the depositors funds was
another albatross.
H] INEXPERIENCED PERSONEL DEPARTMENTS: The personnel
departments were not properly trained in the ethics and practice of Micro
Finance banking concepts before being employed. There was the need to establish
the kind of formula being pioneered by H.E. Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim to lecture
all the staff of a company at regular interval on the mission, vision and modus
operandi in what is generally described in management sciences as Cooperative Education.
And the lack of this led to lackadaisical attitudes in the behavior of the
personnel dept which begin to tell on the overall productivity of the Micro
Finance Banking concept.
SUMMARY OF HOW TO MOBILIZE DEVELOPMENTAL CAPITAL
Prince Frank Onaivi Ukonga in his book –The seething world –
Reparations for the Black Race – A functional approach published in 1992 wrote
extensively about the concept of Banking consolidation, mergers, cartelization,
sovereign wealth funds, African monetary Fund, Regional Banking , FDI, Vision[2000]
now Vision 2020 , sovereign Bonds, Banking Hob, internationalization of assets
and liabilities , African Drawing Rights [ ADR] Micro – Finance Banks, debt
trap and how to get out of the debt burden, debt equity swap, debt
cartelization through the issuance of debt coupon vouchers redeemable at a
later date with incentives of portable interests, Improving Savings / GDP ratio
via the inventions of marketable savings products and instruments, Accelerated
Internal Revenue Generation by effective Tax regime, customs and Exites,
immigrations, maritime, VAT, Seaports, Airports, accelerated and effective
privatizations, aggressive export drive of cash crops and minerals, training of
an educated experts cadre who know what they are doing to give the scheme homogeneity
and effective coordination of stratagems addressed to achieve the desired goal…
etc
as methods by which young Nation states can use to mobilize and
consolidate developmental capital for rapid social, economic and industrial
development and growth.
PRINCE FRANK ONAIVI UKONGA EQUALY YOKED AMONG THE SAGES AS A
SYMBOL OF IMORTALITY….
In 2001 the same book the seething world- reparations for
the black Race – A functional approach made the Librarian/ Deans List Award of
the prestigious Ivy League North
Western University
in Evanston Illinois, United States.
Only two others books from Africa made the
Deans List of North Western University-The Books of our great erudite sages
Prof. Wole Shoyinka and Prof Ade Ajayi .
Northwestern University Library is the Largest Library in
the world accessing million and millions of books daily. To make the Dean’s
list of such a high ranking institution of the world, is like a Carmel going through a
needles eye……
I will be for ever
indebted to the University of Northwestern, one of the most prestigious IVY
league university in the entirety of the Human Race for equally yoking me
Prince frank Onaivi Ukonga among the Nobel laureates and best of best of sages
there be and that could be among Homo sapiens of subsequent creation….and with
absolute humility and gratitude, I thank the university of Northwestern and the
United states of America, for immortalizing me for ever..
The book has gone
through many citations of the most prestigious intellectual circles of the
world including the Amazon books, Google Books, University
of Indiana, Prestigious Library of
Congress of the American
State, etc
Open Library of the United
States put the book in the same class with the works of
the greatest sages of the human Race… yoking me equally among greatest idols as
President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana,
President Secou Toure of Guinea,
and President Leopold Senghor of Senegal etc. I and mine and all my ancestors [Pakalinia-Russian]
shall be for ever grateful to you till the end of time….as you have
immortalized me till the end of time as well…
The Wikipedia citation puts the book in the Deway Class of
most valuable books in the world recently, the National Library of Singapore
has done its citation, the school of Research and development of National University
of Australia has classified the book also as most valuable and in almost all
continents of the world and all countries of the world the book is being
celebrated. We printed less than 400 copies of the book in Nigeria and
gave them to only a select few people for a very important purpose.
How the civilized world got copies of the book and began to
celebrate the book from country to country, university to university, is still
the greatest mystery to Prince Frank Onaivi Ukonga the amiable Prince of
Kukuruku provinces and principalities.
I recommend the book
to policy makers, students and researchers of Nation states as a guide to
formulating policies for accelerated social, economic and industrial progress
of their polity.
But unfortunately you have to get a permit from an Attorney at
law in most cases before you can be allowed access to the book by those prestigious
libraries and universities that have copies of the book as most valuable asset category…
or you can simply go to Google books, Amazon books, or Abe books etc on the
internet, that has done the e-version of the book.. Maybe they may allow you to
have an e-copy.
But remember I did not ask any institution to do an e- version
of the book nor print it. They are doing it on their own and when I asked a few
of them they said the book is so valuable that must not be allowed to go
uncelebrated by the Human Race.
Any way I thank them all for discovery me and did not allow
my existence on earth to be wasted away by the various oxymoron and paradoxes
of the African setting where the best are oppressed to waste away and
mediocrity, scoundrels, treasury looters and pederasts are celebrated
A simile of the Prof.
Wole Shoyinka’s improvisation of the African personage as a wasted generation….
As Gorge Elliot, one of the greatest classic writers of the
Elizabethan civilization once noticed a vulnerable wandering race of men and
women that are a semblance of a wasted disinherited race of mankind…
A semblance of the Russian classic of Mekhail Schendrin-A
book of the Moribund-where his personage Poriru called malinkee chudovishu- [Russian], Little Judas-[English]
by his playmates robs his mother, watches his younger brother to die denying
him of treatment so that he can inherit his little property and denies his own
son of assistance…
As in Tolstoy’s Xolstomir [Russian] Stallion –[English].. Were
the stallion was expelled and punished because it could trot better than the
Masters 1000 of Horses and for the reason that it belongs to a servant…
As in Ivan Turgenev’s classic- Zatishe-[Russian] - Lull – [English]
- where Varitev his personage, a highly gifted man who stupidly jokes his life
away – wasted by the indifference of the beastiality of the society he lived
in….
And that the streams of consciousness of Prof. Wole Shoyinka,
Lev Tolstoy, Tergenev , Schendrin and Gorge Elliot are the exact summary of the
dilemma of the African person of contemporary times is to say the least.
Nevertheless, from
eternity to eternity I will forever be indebted to those great institutions
that discovered me and are investing in the promotions of my books albeit; they
are doing it on their own. They have made me an instant celebrity, and a
celebrated symbol of immortality…
I thank you all.
Note: we shall bring
you the second part of this article which covers the topic of Subsidies in
developing economies- SURE- Subsidy Reinvestment Board as in the Nigeria case
study and the Vision 20; 2020.Pls hang around.
BY PRINCE FRANK ONAIVI UKONGA-PUBLISHER NATIONAL PEOPLES
NEWS & GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATE 2012 POLLS OF EDO STATE.
