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Airport Co-operative Society becomes Micro Finance Bank
By Emeka Okoh
Newsdiaryonline Sun May 15,2011
License for the operation of a Micro Finance Bank in the
aviation sector has been presented to the Airport and Safety
Multi purpose Co-operative Society Limited. The President of the
Co-operative Society, Mr Yusuf Lawal who disclosed this to
reporters at the airport in Lagos, said it
has all the necessary
requirements to run the Micro Finance Bank in the airport
environment to the benefit of the community.
Mr Lawal, noted that, with the backing and supervisory role of
the ministry of agriculture and co-operatives, the institution
will be taken to a greater height.
He explained, that the co-operatives society haven been in
existence for many years applied for a license because the body
was convinced that they will be able to run the Micro Finance
Bank successfully in the aviation industry.
“We have actually been registered to run a Micro Finance Bank,
we have our license already, and we have what it takes to run
it. In fact it is a multipurpose society so with the supervision
of the ministry of agric and co-operatives it will take us to a
greater height and I have believe for it”,he said.
On the activities of the co-operatives in the past one year, Mr
Lawal said it has been a success story with the disbursement of
over N100 m monthly as loans to about 100 members of the body
adding, that there was no room for defaulters in repaying the
loans by members as such loans were deducted from sources.
“We give about one hundred to one hundred and ten million naira
monthly, we give out loan to an average of 100 people and we do
this on monthly basis. I can tell you that there is no room for
defaulters because it has to be recovered from the salaries of
the workers. So there is no room for defaulters. We take it from
their salaries” Lawal disclosed.
The President of the Co-operatives was excited that members of
the body have become landlords and landladies through the
acquisition of some plots of land for them from the government.
Mr Lawal regretted that the greatest challenge that the body was
faced with was the problem of non remittance of membership dues
on time by some of the agencies which has affected its
operations in the past one year, but expressed the hope that it
will soon be overcome.
“We are actually having tough time in terms of getting our
remittance from management but I believe that our members should
exercise patience because hard times are never permanent because
in the past we used to have management that gave us our
remittance as at when due but we are now going through the bad
times now”
Membership of the co-operative society are drawn from various
agencies in the aviation sector such as the Nigerian Airspace
Management Agency, (NAMA) Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria
(FAAN), Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA),
Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NIMET) the Accident
Investigation Bureau (AIB) and the FAAN Staff school.
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