NKEMJIKA OKEKE: NIGERIA SHOULD ESTABLISH CREDIT ECONOMY, RUES ‘BAD FEELING ABOUT LOANS’

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NKEMJIKA OKEKE: NIGERIA SHOULD ESTABLISH CREDIT ECONOMY, RUES ‘BAD FEELING ABOUT LOANS’

By Abayomi Oyelami, Trek Africa Newspaper

L-R: Co-founder, Agrovat Ltd, Nkemjika Okeke presenting award of excellence to Chief Operating Officer, BuyLetLive, Modupe Agbolahan and supported by Eunice of BossLady Chambers

 

 

The Co-founder of Agrovat Ltd, Nkemjika Okeke has expressed concern over what he describes as ‘bad feeling about loans’ among Nigerians. He wondered why anybody should be afraid to take loans to start a business when it will even compel them to operate a successful business.

This, he pointed out, is one of the reasons for the weak naira at the just-concluded Trek Africa National Discourse 2022.

Comprising Mr. Afolabi Solebo, General Manager of Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA); Prince Adewale Adenle, Secretary, Public Account Committee, Lagos House of Assembly; Eva Banjo, MD of Eva Travels & Tours; Stella Obi, MD/CEO of BestChoice Cosmetic and Fragrances; Barr. Evans Ufeli; Barr. Bolaji Adeniji Adele; and Amb. Sina Bilesanmi, President of Association of Telephone, Cable TV & Internet Subscribers of Nigeria (ATCIS), the panel session thoroughly dissected the theme, Naira on Free Fall: The Politics, The Policies, The Way Forward.

L-R: Prince Adewale Adenle, Secretary, Public Account Committee, Lagos State House of Assembly; Barr. Bolaji Adeniji Adele and Co-founder, Agrovat Ltd, Nkemjika Okeke at the 9th edition of Trek Africa National Discourse and Honors

 

The CEO of the agro-startup which has provided access to loans to about 300 farmers in the northern part of Nigeria, Okeke shared: ‘As a country, we need to establish a credit economy, Nigerians need to learn how to borrow. We are always afraid to borrow credit but imagine an economy that gives you N5m credit to start a business, it makes you put your head down to make it work. But when you are putting in cash, you think anything I get is what I use, it is harder for you to put effort and make something out of the business. I want to congratulate women, they are the bedrock of society, and in our finance in Nigeria, they are the best when it comes to granting credit.’

‘There should be incentive to collecting loans to start a business. For us in Nigeria, we have this bad feeling about loans yet finance is always a problem for people starting businesses. Let’s look at Botswana, one of the best economies in Africa, they looked at agriculture, gave credit to farmers who have a business plan and they will follow you up every step of the way until you are able to pay back that loan.’

In the panel session anchored by the Editor of Trek Africa Newspaper, Abayomi Oyelami, the banker turned startup founder Nkemjika Okeke added that Nigerians should also make up their minds to buy Nigeria. ‘We also have issues around our economy’s inability to solve some problems, for example, the same goods you buy from abroad, there are some people producing the same thing in Nigeria but we don’t buy the Nigerian products, we prefer the foreign to local economy. It is going to take a while to get to full industrialization but pending the time, we have to make up our minds as Nigerians to buy things Nigeria.’

Cross section of the TAND 2022 Panel Speakers and the moderator, Abayomi Oyelami (right). 

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