Empowering Businesses at the Grassroots

‎Ksley Group of Companies has carved out a niche by empowering low income earners to start small-scale businesses, Chinedu Eze writes

Nigeria’s economy today and in future will favour those who create job opportunities than those who are looking for job with certificates.

The present economic recession has forced people to put on their thinking caps, prompting people who hitherto were looking for jobs to think of creating some. This scenario has lent itself to the truism that innovation is key to success. But the challenge that many Nigerians who have ideas of one business or another are facing is how to raise capital to establish business.

The residents of Enugu State especially, the South-east and beyond seemed to have discovered the answer to this major challenge. A finance organisation, known as Ksley Group of Companies, a household name in that area, has in the past five years impacted positively in changing the lives of people through its services that have greatly enhanced the living standard of the populace.
According to the beneficiaries of this credit facility, the company has carved a niche for itself with transparency, integrity and a reputation that has endeared it to the people with exemplary service that has benefited all segments of the society.

Ksley Group of Companies is a holding company with subsidaries in both financial investment and production. These include, Ksley Mega Vision, Ksley Mega Microfinance Bank, Ksley Mega Farms as well as Ksley Mega Lottery. The company also plans to establish a university that would extend scholarships to intelligent but indigent students.

Ksley Mega Vision is a financial institution with unique innovation and creativity that has separated the organisation from what people operate today that is called “Wonder Bank”, proving small businesses funds with little or no collateral but the goodwill of the beneficiaries.
The company is registered with the Enugu State as a financial institution that is purely into lending services, as the management of the company explained that what it does is to get money from people who have it and give it to those who don’t have at a relatively low interest rate to do businesses.

The management explained that the company has a tested plan, which any individual can be part of, “you give the company your money and the company trades with it and returns the amount to the owner whenever the person needs it.”

The company is duly licensed and incorporated with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ksley Mega Group of companies, Dr. Kingsley Ubenyi in a recent briefing with journalists at the corporate headquarters of the organisation in Enugu, said the success of the business in the past years of its existence depended firmly on transparency, accountability, integrity and a collaborative effort of the organisation to involve all the investors, stakeholders and other publics in the management and activities of the company.
“Ksley Mega Vision as a financial institution is quite different from what you hear out there. We are unique in such a way that as an investor, we give you what you want and the percentage that is involved.

“We don’t give flamboyant financial assistance that would not last the test of time. We don’t live flamboyant lifestyle in what we do here. We are open and sincere with our business and services. We are not the type that collect money from people and promise them higher interest rate and at the end of it you default. We give little money to people to assist them do business and now we have graduated into Microfinance Bank proper,” Ubenyi said.

According to him, the company has the vision of transparency and that is why it has gone into proper banking “because we started from the scratch with little financial assistance given to people before we decided to go into banking proper.”

THISDAY investigations confirmed that hundreds of the company’s customers have benefited from the services of the Ksley Mega Vision as a financial institution within and outside Enugu and many businesses and production companies due to the services rendered by this company.
Apart from the direct beneficiaries of the financial assistances of this company over 1000 staff are also in the payroll of the company, thus creating jobs for the people.

“Our target is to create jobs for our people, help them establish their businesses and productions and realize self sustenance in whatever they do. That is why we also have diversified into agriculture as a business to create wealth, job, and food for our people.

“Soon you will be hearing about Ksley Mega Lottery and Ksley Mega University and these are the subsidiaries we are considering and by the grace of God, the focus and vision to see how we can help alleviate our people from poverty, grow the economy, and create employment,” Ubenyi said.
He stated that these expected subsidiaries would complement the existing services of the group in the financial institutions of the Ksley Mega Vision and Ksley Mega Microfinance Bank.

According to the CEO, the service of the company is designed to accommodate politicians, traders, manufacturers and all those who want to do genuine business but lack the resources to begin.
“We source fund for them and these loans are with little or no interest and in a situation where you are unable to repay the loan at the approved time we also have an amicable way of resolving it without terminating the business.

“We have touched lives positively, we are no ‘Wonder Bank’. At Ksley Mega Vision, investors are part of the business. We are trading and alleviating the financial constraints for the people.
“We are not sharing or dashing money to people or living a flamboyant lifestyle but we are into proper licensed lending that stands the fast of time and solves the financial constraints of people,” he said.

He further stated that the company held its, Annual General Meeting (AGM) last February where all stakeholders and investors including the general public gathered to brainstorm on the services, successes, challenges and vision of the company.

Ubenyi stated that at the AGMs, the investors confirm that there is future in the business and that has been the strength of the company because so far at the end of AGMs, every member of the public is satisfied with how far the company has gone.

He stated that one core target of the company is the grassroots where majority of our people reside and poverty is immense and the people cannot have direct access to the banks to do petty businesses.

He said: “At the grassroots, we look at the people and say to those who need little loans to come and take money and start their businesses including agriculture at little or no interest rate, we are really targeting the grassroots to bridge the gap between the banks and people. The farmers in the villages, the petty traders have been given hope by our services.”

Ksley Mega Microfinance Banks he stated has a vision of assisting investors into the agricultural sector.

Ubenyi explained that all that the country needs now to come out of the present economic recession is to diversify the mono-economic dependence of the nation on oil to agriculture and other rewarding sectors, adding that the company has a large farm located in Enugu and also encouraging other farmers.

“I am not a politician and not in government but targeting the grassroots as a way of lifting the living standards of majority of our people and make both our investors, depositors and other clients happy at the end of the day,” he added.

He stated that the Modus Operandi of the company is based on credibility and confidence so that at the end of the day the public should understand what the company is doing.

He therefore called on government at various levels to come to their aid and partner with the company by giving them interest free loans which the company can extend to the grassroots.

“Our records are there if we are into bad business we can’t be calling on the government to come and partner with us. The people can testify,” adding “We have efficient strategies and can handle government agricultural loans and know how best to utilise it to accomplish government aims and objectives. The failure of previous government loans is that it went into wrong hands and that is why there are no results.

“We are at the right position to boost agriculture and achieve government plans and programmes in the agricultural sector through improved food production and sustenance as well as create employment for our teeming youths by making agriculture attractive,” he noted.
Ksley Mega Microfinance Banks is providing a succour to the people of the East and with the partnership of government and its agencies in a defined empowerment programme for the grassroots dwellers, the heavy poverty in the land will be degraded.