DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, MICROFINANCE AND ACHIEVING DEVELOPMENT GOALS by Don Abiodun Odedeyi

From the ditch of poverty, credit/loans services are spreading
financial freedom throughout the realm of economically active poor,
low-income persons and micro-enterprises especially in developing
countries. To this end, governments and financial institutions
continually look for ways of improving the sector; how to create
conducive lending platforms for medium and low income
business/individuals.

At the end of World War two, almost all of developed Europe benefited
from one loan scheme or the other. Some of the biggest benefactors
till date are Poland, Switzerland, and Germany (who, apart from low
interest loans also got many of it debts written off).
In Nigeria, the same idea of economic empowerment played out in the
creation of community-based lending institutions. During it first
thirty years of existence, micro-lending sector in the West African
state have seen different transformations, policies, over-hauling etc.
Popular among them was the Community Banks which ran between 1990 to
2007, the People's Bank of Nigeria, between 1989 to 2002, Family
Economic Advancement programme (FEAP) among others.

In 2007, the biggest and widely spread of these community-based banks,
Community Bank, was reorganized into Micro-finance Bank Banks (mfb)
with the aim of re-branding, block loopholes and giving more strength
to it.

Virus dwindling micro banks
Within two years of a robust restart, a major crack opened the newly
reorganized micro-banks. Quick intervention by the apex bank however
saved a waif-like; scores of the institutions that started strongly
became a hard lesson for others that survived the scare.
October 2012, one of the micro-finance institutions, by share of luck,
discovered an impending bombshell!

While going through her Black Book (an inventory of bad debtors and
other customers the bank won't like to transact business with), it was
discovered that some names on the 'Black Book' are re-accessing loans
with the bank. These individuals have been chased, searched for months
without success only for them to come back a year or two later.

Cross Carpet Debtor
September 17, 2012 was a cool bright day. A team of 11 officials of a
mfb (name withheld) moved on some unsuspecting loan defaulters within
it Lagos business district. After visiting three debtors, it was
established they allowed a certain Iya Oyinbo use them in securing
loan; they used their names to seek for loan then handed it over to
the woman. When the heat from the bank became unbearable, one of the
'victims' moved in with police on Iya Oyinbo. Reports filtered in that
she was under detection at Elere Police Station, Mushin, Lagos but on
getting to the station, two other financial institution officials were
waiting at the station deck, sweating, the person in custody wasn't
Iya Oyinbo but her younger sister.
Iya Oyinbo's debt tops several millions of naira and she is nowhere to be found.

As at the time of this writing, a month after, Iya Oyinbo is yet to
surface, several other cross carpet debtors have also been discovered.
The cancer is spreading, many 'customers' are gaining on this pretence
then fade away, move to another financial institution then disappear
again; pandemic looms over a key sector saddled with providing
financial service to about 65% of the country's population.

Is there a way out?
The absent of credit rating, which would have enlightened financial
sectors on customers' credit profile, was however waived aside by a
Lagos based financial expert (name withheld because he is not
permitted to speak to media). He bemoaned the state of national data
collection as a critical blow to any quest for credit rating agency.

"Loan disbursing officers should get to know their customers more,
this, not credit rating, will reduce the spate of cross carpet
debtors."

Chi-Tola Roberts, the managing director of InFocus PR lampooned the
non-utilization of several national data collections which has taken
place over the years.

"With the national identity card, voting registration, Sim card
registration, our journey to such national comprehensive database is
like sixty percent completed; the pocket few can be worked on with
time".

Data from the Central Bank shows that 8.5 billion of the 28.8 billion
(about 29.8%) earmarked for Small and Medium Enterprises Equity
Investment Scheme (SMEEIS) fund so far have been utilized, and about
ten percent of the fund meant for micro credit not yet touched. The
pressure of meeting up with Vision202020 could have set in motion,
rapid disbursement of these trapped funds yet dwindling confidence in
market structure may affect the ball being kicked to motion.

www.donabiodun.blogspot.com

Cooking away Climate Change

The Problem
Apart from contributing to deforestation, it is estimated that inefficient stoves are responsible for close to 25% of emissions of black carbon.

Research shows that black carbon could be a significant factor in the climate change currently being experienced. While efforts at reducing climate change is happening acrossboard, natural forest is taking a big hit especially from local population who rely main on it for their daily cooking, threatening ecosystems and biodiversity, and increasing communities' vulnerability to flooding and landslide caused by soil erosion.

The Solution
Promoting a switch to more efficient stoves is an important part of efforts to address the environmental and climate impacts of severe deforestation. By reducing the amount of charcoal households and businesses need, pressure is taken off forest resources.

This is particularly important in developing countries where minimal access to financial aids, empowerments and basic household utilities forces local populations, despite the danger foretold, to clear forest for cooking.

To change this Thrend, UNEP is working with national organisations to ensure that there are adequate, long term investment in natural resource management and clean energy.

In Africa, Nigerian Developmental Association for Renewable Energies is also helping people in the Guinea Savannah Zone of Nigeria to save money by reducing the amount of wood needed for cooking by replacing their traditional fireplaces with efficient stoves.

Recent data shows that demand for forest resources has fallen, conserving valuable biodiversity and ecosystem services, reducing CO2 emissions from wood burning, and leaving trees standing to act as carbon sinks.

What UNEP Did
With support from the governments of Ireland and Norway, UNEP is working with the Haitian Government to identify opportunities for investment in clean energy. This includes more efficient biomass fuelled cooking stoves, which are of interest to many sectors because they provide multiple social, health and environmental benefits. A national strategy for improved stoves is under development, as is a Haiti Improved Stoves Working Group – a low cost forum for coordinating and promoting improved stove initiatives, involving a range of technologies. In Nigeria, in partnership with the Nigerian Developmental Association for Renewable Energies, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is helping inhabitants of the Guinea Savannah Zone replace their traditional fireplaces with efficient stoves. This project is registered under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), under which projects can earn certified emission reduction credits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The Big Picture
In association with UNEP, Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves is also pushing to have 100 million households switch to clean cooking stoves by 2020. The alliance aims to improve livelihoods and combat climate change by creating a thriving global market for clean and efficient stoves. The Nigerian cookstoves project alone is expected to save more than 300,000 tonnes of carbon over its 10-year lifetime, and is likely to earn $3.13 million in saleable certified emissions.

There is huge potential for introducing affordable and efficient stoves in developing countries, matched by the availability of funding for this type of project under the CDM. Efficient wood fuel stoves, built locally, have also created employment and freed up people's time (especially for women), which can now be devoted instead to income-generating activities.

Finally
Climate change is our own WW3, recent natural disasters are preamble to what may come in few years' time, let us get involve in every way we can.

Don Abiodun
(This article is from UNEP.org under the Heading COOKING AWAY CLIMATE CHANGE, rewritten by Don Abiodun Odedeyi)

Russia hints plans to quit Kyoto Protocol

Russia on Thursday hinted that it may refuse to sign up to a new round
of targeted carbon cuts that could see the Kyoto environmental
protection treaty extended beyond its end of 2012 expiry date.

"One has to admit that we never got any real commercial gain from the
Kyoto Protocol," news agencies quoted Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev
as telling a government meeting.

"That does not mean that we have to try and drag it (the treaty) out
any further," Medvedev added.

European diplomats at the May G8 summit in France said that Russia
along with Japan and Canada had confirmed plans not to join the second
round of carbon cuts.

Russia ratified the treaty in 2004. It has since argued that its terms
harm developing nations.

Medvedev noted that he had said on repeated occasions in the past that
"if the world community fails to agree on Kyoto, we would wave it
goodbye."

He said he was thinking of extending the treaty's terms with EU nations alone.
"But considering our uneasy relations with the European Union, I am
not sure how likely this scenario will be," he said.

A range of EU nations are probing Russian energy natural gas giant
Gazprom for price-fixing and other unfair practices under its new
Energy Charter Treaty.
Medvedev did not explain his reasoning beyond the mention of Russia's
failure to tap into the profits it could have earned had it sold other
nations unused carbon emission credits from its domestic producers.