Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Peoples Bank vs Islamic Bank

General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida's regime in its "wisdom" introduced People's Bank in the 80s. But the institution died a natural death without fulfilling its mission of alleviating poverty with emergence of Nigerian Agricultural Cooperative and Rural Development Bank Limited (NARCDB) which came into being following the merger of the defunct Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Bank (NACB), People's Bank of Nigeria (PBN), and the risk assets of the Family Economic Advancement Program (FEAP).

Prominent among its objectives is "purveyance of affordable credit facilities to the less priviledged segments of the Nigerian society who cannot readily access the services of other conventional banks.

Abruptly, this organisation is 100% owned by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN). Today the same FGN who has failed to achieve the above-mentioned is proposing another model of banking i.e non-interest banking on the premise that the less priviledged will be the main benefactors. The golden questions are:

1. Has the less priviledged ever got anything tangible from the government asides motorcycles and tri-cycles?
2. Can a non-interest banking model work in capitalist-driven and corruption-ridden nation like Nigeria?
3. People Bank vs Islamic Bank: which model do you think will serve Nigerian economy better?

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