By CrossRiverWatch admin
The people of Boki Local Government in the Central Senatorial District of Cross River State are still celebrating the commencement of banking activities on Boki soil since the creation of the local government.
Boki, one of the local government councils created since 28 August, 1991 with the capital in Boje, a population figure of 186,611 people, from the last census and a land area covering 2,771km square, has not had the presence of any banking institution.
But the UNICAL Microfinance Bank has changed all that and have commenced full banking operations in the council area.
The official opening of a branch of UNICAL Micro Finance bank, fitted with two fully operational Automated Teller Machines, ATM in Boki, was done last week and banking activities have since commenced.
The Managing Director of the Bank, Mr. John Owan, told CrossRiverWatch that, the management of the bank is happy that they are fulfilling their mandate of bringing banking services to ‘unbanked’ communities in Cross River State and challenged the people of Boki to take advantage of the new development.
He said: “One of our cardinal role is to take banking services to unbanked communities in Cross River State. We did our survey and realized among other things that Boki, as big as the local government is, does not have a single banking institution since its creation.
“People in Boki who want to get even as little as N3,000 or N5,000 will have to go as far as Ogoja or Ikom LGAs to withdraw from ATM, sometimes they get there and there is no network and they have to embark on another long journey back home without meeting their target.
“We accepted to go there and bridge that gap where several bigger commercial banks have refused to come to and operate and we are very happy that we are meeting one of our principal goals which is to take banking services to communities like this one and continue to open up the local economy”
The Chairman of Boki LGA, Hon. Abubakar Ewa who facilitated the project, while commenting on the occasion, lauded the bank for having faith in the Local Government and for their contribution to the growth of the economy of Cross River state.
The Chairman who was the first to use the ATM on Boki soil, was full of excitement and joy and assured the bank that all council salaries will be transferred to UNICAL Micro Finance bank from next month, December 2015.
The event was attended by the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar, Professor James Epoke, who is also the Chairman of the Board of the bank, Member representing Boki 11 state constituency in the House of Assembly, Hon. Hilary Bisong, Board members of the bank.
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