Blue Intercontinental Micro-Finance Bank Launched With N3bn

By Simon Ateba

A partnership between Intercontinental Bank Plc. (ICB) and a South African company; Blue Financial Services, (Blue), became a reality on Wednesday with the launch of a multi-billion naira micro-finance bank called Blue Intercontinental Micro-Finance Bank (BIMFB).

Although the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, requires a capital base of N1 billion for setting up a micro finance bank in the country, Blue Intercontinental Micro-Finance Bank was launched with a capital base of N3 billion.

The new micro finance bank is said to be the first of its kind to offer technological services such as fingerprint recognition, ATM services, no cash for the opening of a bank account and unlimited loans to middle class Nigerians both in urban and rural ares.

Blue chief executive officer, Mr. Dave Van Niekerk who flew in from South Africa, at a press conference yesterday on Victoria Island, Lagos, said that the new bank marks a revolution in the Nigerian micro-finance banking

According to him, “we are providing credits to emerging entrepreneurs. It’s not really about how much we can give as loans, but how much entrepreneurs can pay back.

“Our model is one based on face-to-face interaction with the customer and is more suited to the products we are offering. For this reason, BIMFB branches will be utilized in addition to kiosks in Intercontinental Bank’s branches.

P.M.News learnt that the products include salary advance loans, personal term loans, retail loans, loans for small businesses finance and home improvement loans.

The Chief Executive Officer of Intercontinental Bank, Dr. Erastus Akingbola, said that the partnership is a remarkable development in the corporate life of Nigeria.

He added that the bank will alleviate poverty in the country

“The traditional banking customers do not cover those that could be regarded as small savers and those in the informal sector. This group of people is indeed the fulcrum of poverty alleviation in a developing economy such as ours and they constitute the mass majority,” Mr. Olayinka Adeniyi, who represented Akingbola said.