Review of Minimum Capital Requirements for Microfinance Banks in Nigeria

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E-mail:fprd@cbn.gov.ng April 29, 2020 REF: FPR/DIR/GEN/CIR/07/054 CIRCULAR TO ALL MICROFINANCE BANKS RE: REVIEW OF MINIMUM CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS FOR MICROFINANCE BANKS IN NIGERIA The Central Bank of Nigeria in consideration of the impact of the Corona Virus (COVID-
19) pandemic on economic activities has revised the deadlines for compliance with the minimum capital requirements for Microfinance Banks (MFBs) in Nigeria communicated vide its circular dated March 7, 2019 referenced FPRD/DIR/GEN/CIR/07/024. Consequently, the CBN has extended the deadlines for compliance with the revised minimum capital requirements for all categories of MFBs by one year as follows:
1)
MFBs operating in rural, unbanked and under banked areas (Tier 2) shall meet the N35 million capital threshold by April 2021 and N50 million by April 2022; 2) MFBs operating in urban and high density banked areas (Tier 1) are expected to meet the $100 million capital threshold by April 2021 and N200 million by April 2022; 3) State MFBs shall increase their capital to N500 million by April 2021 and N1 billion by April 2022; and 4) National MFBs are expected to meet minimum capital of N3.5 billion capital by April 2021 and N5 billion by April 2022.

Please be guided accordingly.

KEVIN N. AMUGO
DIRECTOR, FINANCIAL POLICY AND REGULATION DEPARTMENT