Community Banks, Poverty Alleviation & Rural Development in Nigeria: a re-orientation

Abstract

The approach in this paper to examine the Nigerian financial system in order to revisit the role designed for community banks in Nigeria’s economic development. Moreover, an effort is made to examine if the role of community banks had been met with the establishment of microfinance institutions. If not, what should be done to refocus community banks to play their role in rural economic development? More importantly, there seems to be a gap to be filled by community banks. There are several rural communities throughout Nigeria without microfinance banks (MFBs). The thesis of this paper is to advance arguments for a re-emergence of community financial institutions to be licensed and regulated by state and local governments to fill the gaps created by MFBs. The new institution to be created must adhere to some tenets such as not restricting loan use, providing access to financial services rather than subsidies, focussing more on women empowerment and supporting institutions instead of...