ASSESSMENT OF ZENITH BANK’S INVOLVEMENT IN POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROJECTS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The spate of poverty in a naturally endowed nation such as Nigeria is appalling. It is paradoxical to note that a nation that is so rich in oil, solid minerals, fertile soil and good weather has over 67% of her population living in poverty. Failure of several governmental programmes put in place to alleviate poverty effectively shows that government alone cannot do it hence the need to view what private sectors, especially commercial banks are doing in this regard. Zenith Bank Plc is one of the strongest and most profitable banks in Nigeria as at today hence, the assessment of her involvement in poverty alleviation projects in Ondo State. One hundred copies of questionnaires were distributed to Zenith Bank’s customers while Forty copies of questionnaires to Zenith Staff in the 3 senatorial districts of Ondo State of which seventy six and thirty seven usable questionnaires were retrieved. Result of analysis showed that 90% of the respondents had at least OND/NCE educational qualification. 48.7% of the respondents had never approached a commercial bank before to request for loan. In addition 73% of the respondents complained that the process of acquiring loan was cumbersome and that the bank staffs were unable to assist. Of the few ones that were able to access the loan facility 35% complained about the timing. From the bank’s point of view, factors militating against financing poverty alleviation projects ranged from inability of customers to meet the bank’s risk acceptance criteria; fear of default; poor infrastructure; delay in the judiciary system in prosecuting defaulters and challenges encountered at the point of recovery amongst others. Nonetheless, the bank found it much easier lending to the State Government, Micro Credit Financing Institutions (MFI’s) for the ultimate purpose of alleviating poverty. Conclusively, the research showed that Zenith bank is moderately involved (with correlation coefficient of 0.502) in financing poverty alleviation projects in Ondo State.