The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has extended the deadlines issued to Microfinance banks (MFB) to comply with its revised minimum capital requirements.
This was contained in a circular issued to all microfinance banks on April 29, 2020, and signed by the CBN’s Director, Financial Policy and Regulation Department, Kevin Amugo.
In the circular, the apex bank said:
“The Central Bank of Nigeria in consideration of the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on economic activities has revised the deadlines for compliance with the minimum capital requirements for Microfinance Banks (MFBS) in Nigeria.”
Consequently, the CBN has extended the deadline as follows:
• MFBs operating in rural, unbanked and underbanked areas (Tier 2) shall meet the N35 million capital threshold by April 2021 and N50 million by April 2022.
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• MFBs operating in urban and high density banked areas (Tier 1) are expected to meet the N100 million capital threshold by April 2021 and N200 million by April 2022.
• State MFBs shall increase their capital to N500 million by April 2021 and N1 billion by April 2022.
• National MFBs are expected to meet the minimum capital of N3.5 by April 2021 and N5 billion by April 2022.
The CBN had in March 2019, reviewed the minimum capital requirement for microfinance banks, with a view to ensuring continued operations of these banks in rural, unbanked and underbanked areas of the economy.