By Ismail Auwal
Governor of Borno State, Babagana Umara Zulum, has directed the swift establishment of branches of Borno’s existing Microfinance Bank, as well as/and ICT Centres across the state’s 27 Local Government Areas.
Zulum’s directive followed the CBN’s policy on stoppage of old naira notes amid the absence of banking services across 25 out of Borno’s 27 Local Government Areas due to over 12 years of killings and destructions by Boko Haram insurgents.
The governor announced the microfinance measures during an extraordinary stakeholders meeting, which was attended by the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Umar Garbai Elkanemi, represented by the Waziri of Borno, Mustapha Waziri Muktar.
Governor Zulum also directed the Ministry of Finance to immediately come up with a template to organize and ensure people in rural communities deposit their old naira notes before the 31st of January deadline.
“I have convened this meeting to discuss how our people in the villages can get easy windows of depositing their money to the bank accounts as stipulated in the CBN’s new policy. The Ministry of Finance is hereby directed to moblize the people and ensure nobody lost his money, you should facilitate ways through which people can voluntarily deposit their money into the banks in the remaining days” Zulum said to stakeholders.
Governor Zulum also directed the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation to support mobile telecommunication providers towards improving their network coverage for internet connectivity across all 27 local government areas.
The meeting had in attendance, members of the Borno State House of Assembly, Commissioners, Advisers, Local Government Chairmen and other critical stakeholders.
