Nigeria’s premium microfinance bank, LAPO Microfinance Bank Limited, (LAPO MfB) has entered into a strategic partnership with the Local Government Summit Group (LGSG), for the delivery of efficient financial services to people at the grassroots.
In a media briefing, Mr. Oluremi AKande, Head, Communications, LAPO MfB, said “ LAPO Microfinance bank is already in the forefront of providing easy access to financial services to economically active poor people in the rural communities across Nigeria, this partnership is in recognition of our deep grassroots impact and underscores our very essence as a pro-poor institution. This partnership shall further boost our drive for financial inclusion and reach to more rural poor people for social and economic empowerment.
While explaining the motivation for the choice of LAPO Microfinance Bank, the Acting Director General, Local Government Summit Group, Mr. Muhammed Strong Tijjani, said, “the group was impressed with the impacts of LAPO Microfinance on the Nigerian economy, especially against the backdrop of the bank being the fifth largest employer of labour in Nigeria. This partnership is imperative against the backdrop of the fact that more than 70 percent of Nigerians live in the rural areas and have for a long time now been excluded economically”, Tijani said.
The partnership is a multi-stakeholders approach aimed at the success of the second edition of the Local Government Summit Roundtable, for which the senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has approved 26 and 27, September 2022, to be hosted in Abuja.
On the objective of the Local Government Summit Group, Tijani said, “More than 70 percent of Nigerians live in the rural areas. That number is huge to be ignored. If we are able to re-engineer the local economy and extreme poverty is mitigated at the grassroots level, it will affect security. In short, it will have overall effects on food production because if the rural people are empowered and security is tackled, farmers can now be free to go to their farms, thereby boosting food security.” Local Government Summit Group, a brainchild of Civipact Nigeria, a Research and Advocacy group on issues that pertain to local and grassroots development in Nigeria.
LAPO Microfinance shall continue to explore meaningful partnerships to promote its mandate of social and economic empowerment of members of low-income households and owners of micro small medium enterprises.
