Determined to consolidate on its financial inclusion mileage recorded over the past years, HASAL Microfinance Bank Ltd at the weekend said it was targeting to reach a 500,000 customer base by 2020.

This is even as it hinted of plans to get licensed as a National MFB soon in order to further widen its operational scope in its sustained efforts to serve millions of the financially excluded poor in rural communities nationwide.

Giving these hints at the Gala Nite organized to commemorate the bank’s 10th Anniversary in Abuja, the Managing Director, Mr. Rogers Nwoke, commended thousands of the bank’s loyal customers for trusting the establishment for the past 10 years which availed it the opportunity to provide banking services and empower them with modern micro business management skills.

Nwoke, who reminisced on the micro lender’s journey so far in financial products and services delivery in the country, noted that the efforts of the MFB to impact on customers’ businesses and capacity to manage their enterprises had paid off in terms of the achievements recorded so far.

He explained: “I am very pleased and proud of our shareholders and directors for believing in our dream that one of the ways to eradicate poverty is through providing microcredit and insurance to small business owners who do not have access to Deposit Money Banks to enable them grow”.

“For the past 10years we have worked very hard to make sure that we serve our customers well by rebranding technologically and we have reached a very advanced stage of our core banking. We trained people in Abuja for over 190 days to implement the advanced software and integrate same seamlessly, we have trained our staff to deliver an excellent customers experience at all times”.

“We have also disbursed almost N50bn to about 60,000 people and customer base of more than 200,000. For those who have taken loans and still taking loans, we have recorded close to 60,000 people”, the banking expert added.

Nwoke, who is the current President of the National Association of Microfinance Banks (NAMB), also thanked the investors and gave them assurance that the bank would continue to add value to their investment through good returns and other incentives.

The HASAL MFB boss, who disclosed that the bank had an asset base in excess of N6 billion and a capital base in excess of N2 billion as at its last financial accounts report, confirmed that the micro lender secured recently from OIKO Credit Netherlands a €1.5 million for on-lending to customers.

He hinted further that the shareholders and directors of the MFB had restated their confidence in the management team to take the microfinance bank to greater heights in the future.