The board of directors of Lift Above Poverty Organisation Microfinance Bank has increased its share capital from N2bn to N3.5bn.
The Chairman of the national microfinance bank, Mr Ede Osayande, disclosed this during its 8th annual general meeting in Lagos.
In a statement, the chairman said, “The board of directors proposed to shareholders to consider passing with or without amendment, the resolution as a special resolution.
“That the authorised share capital of the company be and is hereby increased from N2bn to N3.5bn additional ordinary shares of 50kobo each, ranking pari passu in all respects with the existing ordinary shares of the company.”
Consequently, the share capital increase also led to amendment to the Memorandum and Articles of Association.
With the alteration, it stated, the share capital of the company of N3.5bn was divided into seven billion ordinary shares of 50k each.
The chairman also announced a dividend of 30k per share payable on the paid up capital of the company to shareholders whose names appeared on the register of the members as of 31st December, 2018.”
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, LAPO MicrofinanceBank, Dr Godwin Ehigiamusoe, clarified the statutory N5bn directive capital base by the Central Bank of Nigeria for national microfinance banks.
He stated, “I think there is a need for clarification. What the central bank is actually asking is shareholders’ fund, not share capital. Shareholders’ fund means share capital plus accumulated profit that you have made. For LAPO, our shareholders’ fund is in excess of N19bn. But the share capital is a different thing entirely.
“And so, we are increasing it from N2bn as it were to N3.5bn and that means we are increasing the number of our shares from fourbillion to seven billion. What we have done essentially is to provide space for investors that we eventually invite.”
On loan support for the SMEs in the year under review, he said,
“The year under review is 2018. In 2018, we disbursed N127bn to support micro and small enterprises. And in the current year, we target N154bn for the same reason.
“The impact we always see is the fact that there is a huge gap between the huge demand for finance or credit by people at the bottom end such as the owners of micro and small businesses and the available funds. So, as a microfinance bank committed to supporting that end, our major operation is providing credit; we prioritise giving loan to those businesses.”
