GBF’s Loan Portfolio Hits N395.5m

Growing Businesses Foundation (GBF), a major NGO involved in microfinance in Nigeria, has increased its loan portfolio to N395.5million micro loans to entrepreneurs across 22 states of the federation.
The loans were extended to 80 Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) with 13,521 entrepreneurs benefiting to date.
This increase was made possible by the recent roll out of its Market Linkages Program (MLP) in six additional states. The newly introduced MLP is designed to empower women entrepreneurs and farmers at the grassroots with access to ICT, using it as a leverage to bridge the gap between the producer and consumer of agricultural produce.
GBF was established to promote sustainable economic development, and has been at the forefront of raising awareness that profit-oriented companies have a social conscience, and can initiate activities that benefit the socially disempowered, for mutual benefit.
According to Cecil Agwu, project director, GBF’s funding has been by way of mobilizing resources in grants, donations and subscriptions from its Nigerian partners to facilitate its operations among the rural and urban people in Nigeria, “lending credence to our belief that we can solve our problems internally.”
GBF currently has ongoing partnerships with 9 MFIs across the six geopolitical zones of the country, and has within its life span been able to pioneer initiatives that have impacted positively on the lives of the people at the grassroots across Nigeria.
“|Together with our MFI partners, we have an outreach of about 500,000 entrepreneurs across the 36 states of Nigeria and FCT,” Agwu informed.
GBF says it remains committed to reaching out to people at the bottom of the pyramid, serving as a financial intermediary between the formal and informal sectors of the economy, and will continue to support programs and services aimed at empowering entrepreneurs with good ideas.
Members of GBF include Zenith Bank, Union Bank, Citi Bank, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Exxon Mobil, Express Discount Limited, Visafone, MTN, Do Udoma & Belo–Osagie, and C & J Porter Novelli.