Diasporans to open Nigerian community bank that will serve as credit union offering low-interest loans

NIGERIAN diasporans in the US plan to launch a community bank to be known as the Nigeria Federal Credit Union (NFCU) that will offer low-interest loans to members to enable them establish businesses.

Proposed as a financial house that would serve the interest of the Nigerian community in that country and those at home, the new bank is being promoted by the Nigeria National Association, a non-profit organisation that serves as the umbrella body for Nigerians in the US. This credit union, when fully established, would be a full-fledged financial, banking and investment vehicle at the disposal of Nigerians resident in the US, including members of the diplomatic corps.

Traditionally, credit unions provide banking services, loans, mortgages, credit cards, mobile banking and other such services within the community. NFCU will be in a similar mould as its steering committee was inaugurated in April by a former governor of the  Central Bank of Nigeria and Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi, during the US-Nigeria Investment Summit in Washington DC.

At a meeting at the Nigerian Embassy in Washington, the steering committee, said the initiative would advance the credibility of Nigerians in the US. Dr Kazeem Bello, the chairman of the committee, said a community could not realise its full potential without access to banking services and capital at a favourable interest rates.

He added that this is a prerequisite for economic emancipation through home ownership and business financing among others. According to Dr Bello, a bank for Nigerians,  the largest group of African immigrants in the US, was long overdue.

Dr Bello added: “What we are attempting to do is to create a platform for all Nigerians, young and old, men and women, businesses and every Nigerian resident and non-resident in the US, to have an opportunity to have a community-based bank that will be tended to our needs. We’ve been in a society where opportunities abound all over the place but you only accrue those opportunities when you are a direct member of that community.

“Sometimes, a lot of us Nigerians have gone through the pains and hassles of being able to just open a bank account, so the project that we are unveiling today is called Federal Credit Union, and by the grace of God, it has been tagged as a proposed Nigerian Federal Credit Union. This is a banking and financial institution that we are putting together to be fully chartered and the members are you and I who are Nigerians, nobody is owning this bank, the bank is membership-owned."

According to Dr Bello, the Kenyan community in the US, among others was already at an advanced stage of establishing its own community bank while the Turkish community has had a bank since 1948, as have the Polish community. Committee member Felix Obi, said Nigerians could not have economic growth and emancipation if they did not have financial independence and access to capital at a competitive rate that reflects their creditworthiness.

Bayo Idowu, the minister foe economics, trade and investment at the Nigerian embassy in Washington, said the establishment of a Nigerian-based bank had been nursed previously. He added that taking the critical step of moving forward and making it work had, however, been always challenging.