Umuchinemere Procredit
Microfinance Bank Nigeria Limited

The Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank Enugu (UPMFB) achieved an increase in its earnings, recording 35Kobo earnings per share performance and paid 16Kobo dividend per share in its 2014 financial year operations, significantly different from that of the previous year.

This is contained in the bank's official annual report approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria and recently released by the bank.

A Press release from the bank's Head of Public/Media Relations Unit, Sir Abuchi Anueyiagu, showed that Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank paid 16Kobo per share dividend to its shareholders at the end of the 2014 financial year.

Comparatively, the 35Kobo performance in earnings per share was a noticeable difference from its 2013 earnings of 26Kobo per and 15Kobo dividend payment per share.

In the 2014 financial year under review, the bank made a total net profit of ₦112,899,521, a big departure from its net profit of ₦79,172,994 in the previous year, with its shareholders' fund rising from N599.6million in 2013 to N686million in 2014.

Chairman of the bank, Monsignor Prof Obiora Ike, told the shareholders at their annual general meeting that the total assets of Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank increased from ₦2.099billion in 2013 to ₦2.557billion in 2014.

Thanking the shareholders for their continued support, goodwill and trust which they have been giving to the bank in its 20 years of operations, Msgr. Ike said the bank was poised to attain greater heights in the days and years ahead, disclosing that the bank intends to step up its promotion of agriculture by increasing its credit facilities to its genuine farmers.

Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank is participating in the disbursement of the Federal Government's ₦220billion special fund for micro, small and medium scale enterprises and has so far disbursed a total of ₦140million to a total of 447 persons, in partnership with CBN and Enugu State government.

In implementing the Federal Government's financial inclusion principle, the bank, as a Faith based financial institution driven by the Church's mission of economic evangelization and by the pursuit of its goal of empowering the rural dwellers as a tool of reducing poverty in the society, extended its outreach to the autonomous rural communities of Iba Agwa Nike and Ugwogo Nike respectively before the close of 2015. Already, the bank is serving the financial needs of numerous rural communities spread across two of the three senatorial zones of Enugu state.

The chief executive officer/Director General of a German entrepreneurship centre, Social Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development Strategies, Carl Gustav Bjertines, told the shareholders of UPMFB to be grateful to the board and management of the bank able and prudent way they have been managing the bank and taking it to greater heights.

Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank was established by the Roman Catholic diocese of Enugu in 1995 and celebrated its 20th anniversary during its annual general meeting of 2015.

Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank as it is presently known, began as a Community Bank on July 22, 1995 and was established by the Catholic diocese of Enugu during the time of late Bishop Michael Eneja, whom its present chairman, Msgr.Obiora Ike, gives credit in conjunction with its pioneer chairman, Sir Gabriel Akachukwu, as being instrumental to the establishment.

Signed

Abuchi Anueyiagu,KSJI

Head, Public/Media Relations Unit

Umuchinemere Pro-credit Micro Finance Bank

08080242128 & 08033205799.