Amnesty International, FG owing us millions, sets our business back, says CEO of The Man Joe Micro Finance Bank

From Francis Nansak,Lafia

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of a Micro Finance Bank in Nasarawa State The Man JOE Micro Finance Bank, Chief Joseph Nweze, has decried government inability to pay for contract it executed, amidst heavy taxes it pays yearly as law abiding citizen. He also raises alarm that Amnesty International is owing the bank millions for projects it executed for the agency. The same with the Nigeria Police Force.

In this interview, Chief Nweze appealed to the police authorities,Amnesty International to fulfill their contractual agrement with the bank. Excerpts:

Can we meet you formerly sir?

Thank you and welcome.My name is Chief Joseph Nweze,the MD/ CEO, The Man JOE Micro Finance Bank,located along Makurdi Road ,here in Lafia, Nasarawa state.

Sir,as a Micro Finance institution,that has direct bearing on the people at the grassroots,what are your other activities?

Yes, we do a lot of important things with the aim of allievating poverty in our society as it helps in reducing unemployment rate among our youths.we empowered youths and women too,as well as help families to pay their children school fees,as well as financed businesses,like contracts and also acquired contract from the Federal, state and local government and even for individuals,that is what we do here basically.We promptly as an organization,pay our taxes yearly along with VAT,as a law abiding citizen,we complied with government requirements.
We are also supporting government in their policies and as I talked with you,I am also the Grand Patron of APC Youth caucus in Nasarawa state.,we are also into transport business,with lots of lorries across the country ,which is another way of reducing poverty in the country,there are different categories of people working with us ,through the enablement of our banks,FCMB and First Bank.Here we do account opening for individuals,transfer money and pay,just as the banks permits us to by our certification.

How long have you been in these businesses?

The company started as The Man JOE Motors Nigeria Limited and advanced to Man JOE Micro Finance Bank in the year 1992,being the third Limited Company in Lafia,that is ,before the creation of Nasarawa state from Plateau state,the first limited company then was SADAMI Nigeria Limited,the second was Al-Makura Nigeria Limited ,owned by the elder brother of the immediate past governor, Senator Tanko Al-Makura.

While advancing to the level you are now,what were your challenges in doing business?

You see,it has never been easy as there were a lot of challenges ,the most dangerous ones that had contributed to our backwardness are from the government itself, especially from the Federal government,we will be awarded contracts and after 100% execution and certification,payment becomes a problem,so much that even the loans we took from our banks turnout to be a burden on us and for the avoidance of being disgraced , sometimes,we look for means elsewhere to pay the loan.As we speak now,we are being owed a huge amount of money by the government,that is the police sector,which led us to taking them to court,secured a favourable judgement against them,but to enforce the judgement has also become a problem and hard too,because you must involve the police to go and get anything from the police authorities (laughter)so my lawyer at Abuja is there but we lack ideas of what to do to enforce the judgement.We have money also with Amnesty International in Abuja,we executed a job for them but up till this moment no payment to us,so these are some of the challenges we are faced with which are hindering and setting us back.
Secondly,over taxation is one major challenge we go through. Last year, despite the fact that the federal government is owing us,they went ahead and locked up our bank that we should pay a heavy amount to the Federal Inland Revenue Services.Another recent of the challenges we are battling with is that of the state government,which they are asking us to pay for the generator we are using ,radio and the television,even threatens that they will take us to court if we fell to pay about #600,000.00 and I even argued with them that we are using solar system,yet they insisted that we most pay for those items,so we had no choice but to pay them in order to stay free and at peace with them as law abiding citizens.In other places it is the government that should help individual businesses to grow,but here is different,local government are not left out,we also pay for ground rents” these has rather become too much and there is no benefit coming from any of them.Government is not even ashamed that they are unable to supply electricity,but goes about asking individual to pay for private installations as alternative electricity. I am in tears speaking to you and if something is not done urgently, some of the jobs we provide for youths may be difficult paying salary.

With the Coronavirus outbreak,have you in anyway as a Small Scale Business received any support from the Federal government?

Yes, the Federal government supported us ,when they announced that companies that are upto date in payment of their duties should apply,which according to them we are to be given #25million ,after ,they said the numbers of people that applied was too much,so they reduced it to #15million,so we also applied ,but before it will reached us ,they had again reduced the money to #1.5million,so that is what we ended up receiving from them,so we collected it with appreciation.

What is your appeal to the government,giving the kind of challenges you are faced with?

Let me start by appealing to the federal government,who are directly responsible in ensuring that her citizens are helped, that’s let them pay all the contractors who used their monies to execute contract perfectly and are certificated.