CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

The micro finance banks in port hacourt and in Nigeria as a whole is growing signifcantly with time and increasing the level of competition among them; only those with the best strategies tends to fare better in the market. The customers of micro finance banks in Nigeria are not much; now with the number of micro finance banks in Port hacourt with small number of customer tends to increase the level of competition among micro finance banks in port hacourt. For the purpose of this research work we shall look at some strategies that will help the micro finance banks survive in the competitive market today; some of these strategies are promotion strategeies, good customer relationship strategies, a good advertising medium.

On the promotional aspects, most micro finace banks tends to reach the publics; the best way to reach out to the public are simply through advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, and direct marketing according to (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2004).

Promotion and advertisment goes on par, as they can not do without each other; creating awareness to the general public on the arrival of such micro finance bank.

On the marketing aspect of it, the micro finance bank with a good and experience marketer who are leaders in their field that can work with less instructions, can do better than the micro finance banks that have less experience marketers to market their products.

Another good area that needs to be addressed is the public relationship; port hacourt is a big city, with a lot of competition in the market today. It will be very bad to loose a customer to another bank either because of the maner at which the sell representative or a marketer talks or treats his or her customer.

For a micro finance bank that has the zeal to grow beyound others, public relationship should be a watch word.

When the staff or employee of such micro finance banks understands the importance of public relationship, them they can go along way.

Another area that needs attention is advertisement; it can be a radio advert, it might be through flier distribution, it might be giving out shirts, caps pen or anything with the name of the micro finance bank on it; this is just to create awareness; since images sticks more than words in the menory.

1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

Most micro finance bank today tends to fold up because they can not get good income from customers, micro finance banks operates on a low key, since they deal with low income earner like market men and women, whose sales a day does not exceed hundred thousand, with the level of competition in the market today from other micro finance banks, the number of customers tends to minimun per bank as this have adverse effect on the growth and development of micro finance banks in port hacourt.

Another problem of these micro finance bank is lack of capital, since this kind of organisations are known for given out loans to their customers, imagine a micro finance bamk that does not have a strong foundation and can not give out loan to their customers tends to lost customers on daily bases.

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTION

1. What are sources of capital for the micro finance banks in Nigeria?

2. Does advertisement increase the survival chances of micro finance banks in port hacourt?

3. What are the roles of financial institution in the growth and development of micr finance banks in port hacourt?

4. What other government policy to aid the effective performances of micro finance banks in Nigeria?

5. Does a good public relationship approach have significant effect on the performance of micro finance bank in port hacourt?

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

H0: There is no significant relationship between the rate of advertisement and the survival strength of micro finance banks.

H1:  There is a significant relationship between the rate of advertisement and the survival strength of micro finance banks.

H0: Branding and advertisement does not have significant effect on the level of performance of micro finance in the market

H1: Branding and advertisement have significant effect on the level of performance of micro finance in the market.

1.5 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

The aims of this research work are to:

1. determine the sources of capital for the micro finance banks in Nigeria.

2. determine the effect of advertisement on the survival chances of micro finance banks in port hacourt.

3.  determine the roles of financial institution in the growth and development of micr finance banks in port hacourt.

4. Reveal the government policies to aid the effective performances of micro finance banks in Nigeria.

5. determine the effect of a good public relationship approach on the perfomance of micro finance banks in porthacourt.

1.6 SIGNIFICANE OF STUDY

The research work will reveal a lot needed by micro finance banks to survive in a competitve enviroment. The study is deem useful because It will reseal both the marketing strategies through branding, advertisement and other ways of public relation.

The study will advice micro finance bank on how to face the competitve market today, it will advice the owners of most micro finance bank on the importance of loan giving. The study will compare micro finance banks with experienced marketers and those without experience marketers.

1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY

The study will cover the concepts of micro finance banks. It will discuss the micro finance market and the level of competition in it. The advantages of the financial strength of the micro finance banks shall also be discussed. Finally the study will discuss some micro finance banks in porthacout.

1.8 LIMITATION OF STUDY

FINANCIAL CONTRAINTS: The researcher was limited finance, so this made the researcher not to be able to visit all the micro finance banks in port hacourt, but the researcher was able to get all the information needed for the purpose of study.

TIME CONSTRAINTS: port hacourt is a very busy town with limited number of road, this made it difficult for the research to visit these micro finance banks on time; but the few visited, the researcher was able to get good information for the research work and was able to meet with the time given for the completion of the research work.

1.9 DEFINITION OF RELATED TERMS:

COMPETITION: the activity or condition of striving to gain or win something by defeating or establishing superiority over others

ADVERTISEMENT: Is a form of creating awareness of a product, a company, or an organistion for the whole public to see.

BRANDING: The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a product in the consumers' mind, mainly through advertising campaigns with a consistent theme

STRATEGY: a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.

REFERENCES

Ananda, S. and Murugaiah, V. (2003), New Marketing Dimension for Financial Services Industries, Indian Journal of Marketing,Vol.35, pp.34-38

Arshadi, N. and Lawrence, E. C. (1987), “An Empirical Investigation of New Bank Performance”, Journal of Banking & Finance, 11, 33-48.

Berkowitz, E.N., Kerin, R.A., Hartley, S.W. and Rudelius,W. (2000): Marketing 6th ed. Boston, Irwin.

Berry, L. L., Kehoe, W.J, and Lindgreen, J.H. (1980),How Bank Marketers View their Jobs, The Bankers Magazine (USA), Vol.163, pp.35-40

Central Bank of Kenya, (2010), Annual report and accounts for 2009, Nairobi.