DMCP: The beginning, the journey
By MONDAY UWAGWU
It was at about midday that fateful December 14, 2007 that the dream was put on course. At the launch, Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, drove home the whole essence of the DMCP: to battle poverty among the people, especially the economically weak, by easing their access to credit and other inputs for sustainable economic activities. This was in realization of the fact that generic material poverty subsists in our society and that effective delivery of critical resources, especially fund, remained the best way to whittle its tempo.

In order to do this successfully, the DMCP was to run on any operational module that de-emphasises the prohibitive collaterals that encumber ordinary people from accessing credit from conventional outlets, without compromising the credibility of its management process, especially the facility recovery (repayment) prospects.

In addition it was programmed to grant a three-month moratorium to beneficiaries, who are to aggregate based on geographical proximity, trade symmetry and attitudinal indices. Besides, their loan profile (size) must be micro (extremely small), it must be group-guaranteed and is repayable over a liberal period of one year. Above all, it is interest-free, and deliberately targets the urban poor, the rural population, the generally economically – weak and persons with HIV/AIDS.

For the effective insulation of DMCP from partisan and other negative influences, fund disbursement is by carefully selected Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs), which, in lieu of their services, building beneficiaries’ capacity, and the supervision and monitoring of clientele for compliance, earn an 8 per cent pay from the state government in administrative charges.

Of necessity, the management has to have a world-grade administrator in Dr. Antonia Ifeanyi Ashiedu, a management consultant and development economist, to ensure that efficiency is not compromised.

After one year of effective implementation, the government has, via DMCP, empowered in excess of 17,385 Deltans drawn from 1,526 groups (clusters) sieved from the three senatorial districts of the state.

In all, disbursements have been made to beneficiaries from the total vote for the fiscal years 2007 and 2008.

The successful management of DMCP has not only led to the successful empowerment of 17,385 persons and 1,526 groups (as at November), but has led to two critical developments – the encouraging level of repayments (which has eased the operational efficiency of DMCP), and the birth of an alluring offspring in DOMSA.

DOMSA – Delta Oceanic Micro-Credit Scheme Account – is a secondary rung of the economy reflation programme of the Uduaghan administration and an effective consolidation of DMCP, the primary rung. Running on a vote of about N500 million DOMSA is a partnership between the government and Oceanic, one of Nigeria’s top-flight banks. It runs on module similar to DMCP, except that, unlike it (DMCP), DOMSA has a small implied interest element: it also has a unique collateral index in beneficiaries’ counterpart fund) and a petering (down word sliding) interest rate.

Under DOMSA, a beneficiary can access as much as N5 million to upgrade existing production lines.

Dr. Ashiedu said that part of DOMSA’s critical goals is to raise the credit profile of successful DMCP applicants, to help them raise their production targets, streamline their products for authentication by regulatory bodies, and help source local and offshore markets for beneficiaries to market their products.

By so doing, DOMSA will equally help raise the tempo of employment and, thereby, help attain the government’s lofty dream of encouraging private-sector employment as a means of whittling the huge social cost of the nagging tempo of joblessness in the state.

Our story, by DMCP clientele
By LILIAN EZENDO
Pray, who can tell a man’s story better than himself? How much success can a man achieve, trying to clap with one hand?

These rhetorical questions raise a fundamental issue in contemporary Nigeria, especially its public sector. How much would it, actually speaking, cost the government to enable the people, ordinary Nigerians, to engage in worthwhile ventures that would reflate the economy?

Much? Not much?

Well, whatever your answer, the fact is that it costs little, so little, and yet much, so much, to do so. And why, you ask? Yes, it costs little because, ordinarily, neither the political will nor the material resources required for this enablement, costs a bomb, so to speak. Yet, it costs so much, because in our land and clime where a yawn exists between the people’s genuine expectations and the government’s priorities as well as the copious lack of demonstrable will to change on the part of society’s leaders, nobody, not even the most optimistic, expects any positive change.

This stream of cynicism has flown through all of the people’s dealings with their governments, over the years.

But some of this cynicism appears to be waning in Delta state, following the introduction of the Delta Micro-Credit Programme (DMCP) by the Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan administration, on December 14, 2007.

After the initial cynicism which flowed from the people’s age-long experience with their leaders, DMCP, Uduaghan’s short-term answer to the prayers of the economically-weak Deltans for succour, has begun to bud, raising the bright prospects of long-term growth and development. Now, exactly one year old, DMCP, after empowering in excess of 17,385 Deltans with credit is giving fresh, assuring meaning to the down-trodden, its specific target.

And they are speaking, cheerfully, of the new dawn and how DMCP has kick-started a promising new life for them. From the balding vegetations of Delta North, through the virile landscape of Delta Central, to the marshy, brackish water lands of the South Senatorial districts, the ever growing clientele are up in harp, eulogising the government and the DMCP for its ameliorative impact on their lives.

A sample of the geographical expanse of Delta State and the span of DMCP clientele will confirm the obvious and the people’s faith in the scheme as a veritable tool for worthwhile economic change.

For David Ubaka, the executive of Chi-Austin Enterprises, DMCP has unfolded a whole new life for him.

Blind in both eyes, David had been trained at a specialist school in Lagos. But long after his successful training, he had no fund to begin his business of bag making, until DMCP came along and offered him the critical life-line.

Now, David, deploying the DMCP loan, has begun the mass production of the highly sought bags, and his success story has spread like wild fire, resulting in some students of Nigeria’s first truly indigenous university, UNN, voluntarily becoming his apprentices in bag weaving.
His words “I thank the government because many people are now enjoying because of the loan and it has also brought hope to the common man in Delta State. The loan has helped me to alleviate poverty. I always tell people not to give money to any physically challenged person… physically challenged people should be taught how to fish and not given fish.”

Though she is not physically challenged, Madam… of the popular Jolly Mama Cosmetic producers, Ughelli, shares the philosophy in Ubaka’s belief and the place of DMCP in economic reconstruction.

Hear her: “Before the micro-credit scheme (DMCP), we were producing on a very small-scale, meaning sometimes what we were expected to produce, we would not be able to meet up.

But immediately after we heard about this micro-credit scheme and they assisted us into production, we came out with large scale (production). From what we have been producing, we have been able to reach out to so many communities in Delta, Edo and Bayelsa states.

“I must tell you that since we benefited from the programme, things have been going smoothly and changed for the better.”

The successful transformation of the production process of Jully Mama Group, Ughelli is so spectacular that it is liaising with appropriate authorities for the highly sought NAFDAC seal on its products.

And what wonderful news that would be?

For the Ogbe-Ijaw Market Fish Sellers’ Association, the delivery of the DMCP relief could not have been better time.

Mrs. Patricia Balogun, leader of the group, captured the captivating essence of the DMCP relief capsule in the following.

“The micro-credit programme don change our life. Before we get de loan, market wey we dey do no enter for us like e be now. De money don help we dey fit go front front and dey fit make our business dey fit increase.

We dey thank Governor Uduaghan and dey pray for am say make God give am long life and good mind to take do im work for Delta.”

For Peace Social Club (foodstuff sellers), Oleh, the story is the same.

Mrs. Philomena Nyanga, chairlady of the group who spoke on behalf of members, said “…The micro-credit loan don help us a lot. Bifor this loan, our business no dey grow but after dem give us the money, our business come dey grow every day by day. We thank Governor and our madam. This money wey government borrow us remove poverty from our body…”

Who would doubt her?

Now that DMCP has a higher echelon – DOMSA – which seeks to reflate successful micro-businesses to small and medium-scale ones, is it not self-evident that just as the effective marksman who hits the eagle in flight, Governor Uduaghan and his DMCP require no further proof of efficiency and the capacity to continually improve the lot of Deltans?

DMCP, from the prism of royal fathers, opinion leaders
By MONDAY UWAGWU
In Africa, it is said that the wisdom of the king, is uncommon. Flowing from this is this: the judgment of the royalty can hardly be faulted. The same applies to elders, whose opinions run deep and unassailable, like a stream over a cliff.

It is for this reason that no wise man toys, highly, with the well founded opinion of well-guided elders and royal fathers, even on issues of public administration. For the DMCP, the informed opinion of elders and royal fathers is clear evidence of the creativity behind its institution, and the wisdom behind its implementation.

Hear them:
The royal father of the agless Agbor kingdom, Dein Keagborekuzi I, receiving the DMCP arrowhead, Dr. Antonia Ashiedu, in his palace, described the programme as a critical “life-line for economically weak persons.”
Represented by Chief Jeremiah Ukpere, a frontline chief in the kingdom, the Dein said Governor Uduaghan deserved commendation for creating DMCP for the empowerment of economically - weak Deltans.

On his part, the Ovie (royal father) of Udu, Owhorhu I, lauded the programme which, he said, was also being sincerely implemented.

The Udu monarch urged Governor Uduaghan to remain focused on his agenda of using the DMCP to literate economically-weak Deltans from the stranglehold of material poverty.

Owhorhu I spoke when Dr. Ashiedu, the Executive Assistant on Micro-Credit, paid him a courtesy call on his office as part of the initial efforts to create awareness of the DMCP initiative.

Beyond the royal fathers, DMCP has earned the rare praise of elder statesman, Ijaw national leader and one of the most consistant public critics of the Uduaghan administration, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark.

Chief Clark, during a visit Dr. Ashiedu to present certificates to DMCP clients in Warri areas, said he was impressed by Governor Uduaghan is performance, via the DMCP.

The statesman and former Minister for Information, however, pleaded that rural dwellers benefit from the laidable scheme.

Chief Clark’s commendation means that beyond the prism of political differences, he has seen an inresistible allure in the programme.

And who would doubt the veracity of different, reckonable leaders of society on an issue on which they spoke, at different fora?