By Constance Adaurie
NPF Microfinance Bank has clarified it’s open to entire Nigerians, despite misconceptions due to its association with the police.
Habeeb Yusuf, Managing Director started this on Friday in an interactive session with journalists at its head office in Lagos.
He urged businessmen, self-employed individuals, salaried workers, and anyone with an economic activity to bank with them, stressing the bank isn’t just for loans. “It’s for savings too. If we all save here, it’ll help people access loans and better the community,” he said.
Explaining further, he added that they don’t mandate police officers to bank with them. “It’s not compulsory for police officers to have an account with us. But those who do have great feedback,” he said.
“The police have the bank at 62% in terms of capital and then the general police insurance still has 14% in terms of ownership. But if you talk about the customer spread, I can tell you that 45% of our salary products is patronized by police, which means about 55% is patronized by other salary customers.
“We have 1.5 million customers in Nigeria today, then we are talking about over 300,000 policemen. It means that even if we capture the entire policemen, we will be having like 30% of policemen as our customers. That indicates that the bank is for everybody,” he added.
The Executive Director of Operations, John K Tizhe noted that their loans are accessible and affordable. “Our rates are moderate. The bank’s interest rate is 36%, way lower than industry rates.
Highlighting the bank’s progress, he said the bank which began operations in 1993 has gradually expanded into national microfiance bank with 49 branches across all the state capitals.
“NPF Microfinance Bank’s capital base grew from ₦500,000 in 1993 to ₦13 billion in stakeholder’ funds. We recently ranked the second-best bank in capital appreciation in 2025. We are the only state microfinance bank listed on the capital market,” he said.
Speaking also, Osaro Josephine Idemudia, Secretary and legal adviser, said the bank have a special product for women called ‘BETAwoman loan’, offering up to ₦5,000,000 at low interest rates of approximately 18% per annaum.
“It is our own way of empowering women in the country to alleviate poverty. It requires opening a BETAwoman savings account, allowing participants to save and potentially borrow 100% of their monthly deposits,” she said.
On loan recovery, Executive Director Finance and Administration Olamide Akini-Balogun said NPF considers environmental factors and takes legal action since it’s other people’s money. “But when there’s a genuine reason, we restructure customers’ loans to accommodate them.”
The bank provides retail banking, including savings and current accounts, salary advances, and various loan products, including; agricultural, school facility, trade/commerce.
It is deeply rooted in supporting the police community, it serves low-income households and micro-enterprises.
