The President of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board JAMB Staff-Investment and Credit Cooperative Society(JICCS), Mr. Boniface Tukura, has said that the new stipulation on loans to members would be a blessing to members of the JICCS as it would make it mandatory for any member of the JICCS to have 50% of his/her salary as take-home pay after statutory deductions by the Federal
Government.
He stated that the new loan regime would be in the interest of Cooperators particularly those planning to access loans from the JICCS, according to JAMBulletin, the weekly newsletter of the Board.
Mr Tukuru added that before the arrival of Professor Is-Haq Oloyede, the current Registrar/CE, the JICCS used to give loans without recourse to financial regulations.
As such, it was possible then to see a member of staff who had taken a loan to go home with just ten thousand naira (N10, 000) after deductions until the attention of the JICCS was drawn to the extant rules on loan disbursement.
“Consequently, the executives set the machinery in motion to apprise members of the new development designed to safeguard members from suffering financial embarrassment.
“Adherence to financial regulation is a welcome development as it has reduced family squabbles, financial embarrassment and pressure occasioned by the deduction of over 70% of debtors’ salaries at times,” he said.
Mr. Tukura reiterated his determination to take the JICCS to its zenith with its investment plans that would strengthen and increase the JICCS capital base as well as bring more dividend to members. He pointed out that the JICCS had concluded plans to expand its capital base by selling shares. He urged members to key into that as it would not only have the capacity of opening investment opportunities to members but also improve their welfare through increased dividend.
He pointed out that the bye-laws had been reviewed in line with the present reality to accommodate the intended shares regime.
He said, “In the new bye-laws, we are now going to roll out shares and it is what comes out of the shares that we shall use to invest. By so doing, the Cooperative would be stronger. If shares are incorporated, no
contributor would be a member without being a shareholder.”
Continuing, he said, “If you do not have shares, you are just a contributor and a contributor is only entitled to 10% as interest on his or her contribution. The forms are out already with a member being entitled
to purchase a minimum of 4,000 shares.”
He added that “Whatever is realized from the sales of shares would be invested and the proceeds would be shared as dividend after the financial details might have been presented to the congress.”
The president while taking stock of his stewardship noted that his regime inherited a moribund estate which development was stalled because the developers could not provide the necessary logistics for the completion of the project. However, after consultations and support of the present Management under Prof. Oloyede, a Committee was set up with the Registrar detailing the Director Test Administration, Dr. Yusuf Lawal, to find a way out of the logjam. The Committee recommended that the JICCS should set aside a minimum of N10million monthly for the completion of the estate.
He said, “It is to be noted that when the MoU was not working, we asked the developers to bring 50% while the Cooperative pay 50% as the project was estimated at N100 million. The developers failed to honour their part of the bargain.”
He added that “We want to express our appreciation to the Registrar for his intervention because Cooperators who had subscribed to the estate were able to heave a sigh of relief as they took delivery of their houses.”
Mr. Tukura recalled that on assumption of duty four years ago, he had to contend with the JICCS low
financial base of as low as N50 million. However, following his proactive measures, he was able to put
machinery in motion that raised the capital base to N150 million within a period of six months.
He noted that the strong capital base enabled the JICCS to disburse a whopping amount of N110 million as intervention loans to staff wishing to meet certain financial obligations to the Board. Mr. Tukura revealed the determination of the JICCS to complete the second phase of the estate stating that the
move was to accommodate the backlog of subscriptions to the first phase of the estate.