CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION
1.1 History and Meaning of SIWES
The Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES) is skill training
program designed to expose student of universities, polytechnics and colleges for
industrial work situation they are likely to meet often graduation. The scheme
affords students the opportunity of familiarizing and exposing themselves to the
needed experience in handling equipment and machinery that are usually not
available in their institution. Before the establishment of the scheme, there was a
growing concern among our industrialist that graduates of our instituting of higher
learning lack of adequate practical background studies preparatory for employment
in industries.
Thus, the employers were of the opinion that the theoretical education going
on in higher institution was not responsive of the needs of the employer of labour.
It is against this background that the rational for initiating and designing the
scheme by the fund during its formative years- 1973/1974 was introduced to
acquaint student with the skill of handling employers and machinery. The ITF
solely funded the scheme during its formative years. But as the financial
involvement become unbearable to the fund, it withdrew from the scheme in 1978;
the Federal Government handed over the scheme in 1979 to both the National
Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Board for Technical Education
(NBTE). Later the Federal Government in November 1984 reversed the
management and implementation of the SIWES Programmed to ITF and it was
effectively taken over by the industrial training fund in July 1985 with the funding
being solely borne by the Federal Government.
1.2 Industrial Training Fund (ITF)
Aims and Objective of ITF
i. It helps in stimulating the adoption by companies of such training, practice
and standard to be appropriate.
ii. It helps in identifying organizational needs.
iii. It helps in identifying manpower trends in the country, which influence
training needs.
iv. It helps to promote and encourage the acquisition of skills in industrial and
commerce and sufficient to meet the needs and demands of the economy.

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1.3 Importance of SIWES
i. It strengthens link between the employers, universities and Industrial
Training Fund (ITF).
ii. It exposes students to more practical work methods and techniques.
iii. It provides students with an opportunity to apply their theoretical
knowledge in real life situations.
1.4 Vision and Mission of SIWES
Vision: To set and regulate standards and offer direct training intervention in
industrial and commercial skills training and development, using a corps of highly
competent professional staff, modern techniques and technology.
Mission: To be the prime Skills Training Development Organization in Nigeria and
one of the best in the world.
1.5 Aims and Objective of SIWES
To efficient outline the aims and objective of SIWES is to make sure that the
student is attached to a particular company so as to enable him/her to put in practice
what he/she learned from the school. Furthermore, the student focusing more
attention will gain additional experience from the organization for him to face the
challenges of the 21st century which brought about globalization. The main
objectives of SIWES are:
i. SIWES provide the student the opportunity to get used to latest technology
such as tools, machines and processes and procedures of most industrial
company.
ii. It enables the student to gain additional interest in the career he/she is likely
to take up.
iii. Expose students to work methods and techniques in handling equipment and
machinery that may not be available in their institutions.
1.6 Challenges of SIWES
i. Lack of Orientation: Most Nigerian internship students aren’t being
properly informed by their schools and departments on what the SIWES
program is all about. Sometimes, they aren’t even guided on how to make
payments for the collection of their receipts, forms and logbooks. As a
result, they end up securing a place late for their training’s.

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 ii. Lack of Supervision and Care: Some schools find it very difficult to go or
send representatives to the various workplaces of their internship students-
to monitor, supervise, grade and advise them on the right things to do. As a
result, some students don’t even go for their training at all.
iii. Lack of Support: Majority of internship students aren’t being paid. Some
firms, despite being financially stable find it very difficult to pay their
interns. Some even go as far as charging their internship students certain
fees.
iv. Document Format: Sometimes, I.T students aren’t being shown and taught
the proper ways to correctly fill in their SIWES logbooks, report writing etc.
They eventually end up making costly mistake which may affect their
grades and performances.
v. Limited I.T Spaces: Firms accepting students for industrial training in the
country are relatively few in number. Sometimes, internship students tend to
migrate to only industrial states such as: Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Abuja etc.
for their training thereby causing overpopulation and competition.
vi. Laziness of Workers: The high rate of laziness exhibited by some workers
in firms where students undergo their industrial training is becoming quite
alarming. Majority of these workers sometimes sees and takes the internship
students as servants. For instance, instead of the students to be properly
taught and shown the major activities, they’re now being instructed to carry
out irrelevant jobs such as mopping floors, washing toilets etc.
vii. Report Presentation: Most schools and lecturers are only interested in how
well their internship students were able to defend and present their works
(logbooks, reports) other than how much was benefited and gained from the
training. As a result of this, you may likely find a situation whereby a
student who actually participated and benefited from the program is
awarded a poor grade due to stage fright (i.e. the inability to come out of
the class to boldly present his/her work) whereas, other students who didn’t
go for the training, but as a result of boldness and smartness in forging
materials will be awarded a better grade.

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 CHAPTER TWO
DESCRIPTION OF WORKPLACE
2.1 Brief History of Standard Microfinance
STANDARD MICROFINANCE BANK: is a financial institution that
provide microfinance services such as deposit, loan and other financial services,it
was set up as a community bank (jimeta community bank) in 1992 by a group of
socially conscious individual in the town of jimeta Adamawa state.it become a
microfinance bank in 2007 and was fully registered on the 01-02-2008.it is sited at
No.84 Muhammad Mustapha way jimeta, opposite LCCN Catherdral church,
jimeta, Adamawa state.It's has 12 branch across the state include Mayo Balwa,
Jada, Ganye, Toungo, Recogado, Faro, Yola South, Song, Garkida, Maiha, Mubi
and the head office Jimeta.
The Bank have the following department;

 Credit Department
 Human Resource Department
 Operational Department
 Internal Control Department
 Mis Department

Service and products available are;

 Credit
 Deposit
 Savings account
 Current account
 Standard adashe
 Fixed deposit
 Other products
2.2 Mission and Vision of Standard Microfinance Bank
Vision: To be the preferred provider of microfinance services across Adamawa
State.

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 Mission: To provide cost effective quality microfinance services to the active poor,
by adding value to their existing economic opportunities in order to enhance their
role in economics and social decision making.

2.3 Aims and Objectives of Standard Microfinance Bank

The main aims and objective of standard microfinance bank is to provide
financial services to the poor (underprivileged peoples) Who have little or no
access to commercial bank services.
2.4 Organizational Chart of Standard Microfinance Bank

Board of directors

Managing Director

MIS Human Resources Internal Control Head of Credit

Credit Unit Branch Operation

Loan Officer Marketing Team Account Officer

Cashier/ Teller Customer Care Services Cleaner and Security

2.5 Department Attached

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 Credit Department is the largest department in standard microfinance bank,
it handles the credit activity, which is the major activity in bank. It has three
different teams (account officers, marketing team and loan officers).
The credit department has four (4) types of loan product, Salary loan, Agric
loan, business loan and fattening loan.
1. Salary loan: this is a loan giving to the salary earners working across the state with
salary account at standard microfinance bank, this is the simplest and fastest loan
that is being Process within a short time and less restriction, maximum duration of
salary loan is twelve (12) months.
2. Agric loan: this is a bank loan product which is granted to farmers. Agric loan is
giving to farmers inform of group). Each group contains a minimum of five (5)
people and maximum of nine (9) people respectively.
Agric loan is classified into three (3). These are;
 Raining season
 Dry season
 Yam farming
Loan process in rainy season with interest of farming any crop during rainy
season is consider as raining loan, loan process in dry season with purpose of
drainage farming is called dry season loan and loan processed with purpose of yam
farming is considered as yam farming loan.
Agric loan duration:
1. Raining season farming loan duration is nine (9) months I.e combination of
grace period and repayment period. Grace period is four (4) month while
repayment period is five (5) month.
2. Dry season farming loan duration is six (6) months both grace period and
repayment period, grace period is three (3) month and repayment period is
three (3) month.
3. Yam farming loan duration is twelve months (12) nine (9) months grace
period and three months (3) repayment period.
3. Fattening loan: is loan given to a client for the purpose of rearing, it's to a
customer at customer request regardless of rainy or dry season.
Fattening loan duration:

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 Fattening loan duration is six (6) months three (3) months grace period and three
(3) months repayment period.
4. Business loan: this is a loan that is being process to either individual or group of
people men/women in the same type of business.
Business loan duration:
Business loan duration is six (6) months and there is no grace period, repayment
start immediate after one month of collection.
2.6 Functions of Credit Department
It is the largest department in Standard Microfinance Bank. It handles the credit
activity, which is the major activity in SMFB. It has three different teams (account
officers, marketing team and loan officers).
i. Credit processing and procedure
ii. Minimizing bad debt losses
iii. Maintaining each customer information in the credit file (record keeping).
iv. Loan recovery
v. Marketing
vi. Business projections

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 CHAPTER THREE
SIWES ACTIVITIES AND EXPERIENCE GAINED
This chapter consists of the experience gained from the training.
3.1 Experience Gained
During my six months Student industrial work experiences scheme (SIWES) at the
Standard microfinance bank, the practical knowledge gained includes;
 Costumer verification
 Credit Appraisal
 Loan Booking
 Loan Disbursement
 Loan Monitoring
 File Tracing
 Loan Recovery
Customer verification: is the process of verifying customer physical basic information,
i.e. (KYC). the importance of verifying customer basic information is to enable a loan
officer lending and full assurance of recover facilities granted. These informations
includes:
 Identity proof: is the proof of I. D Card, voters’ card, national I. D card, driving
lenses etc.
 Address proof: is a proof of residence and business place.
 Asset proof: is a proof of customer assets such as house, land, vehicles, animals
etc.
Credit appraisal: this is the key activity in lending, it's the character assessment and
recommendation of loan to the customer. It's carried out upon receipt of customer request
for credit and all necessary document/ information for such credit. The appraisal is done in
line with the bank policy.

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Character assessment: this are the personal information about the customer business and
family such as honesty and integrity, ability to manage a business and make a smooth
repayment, business asset, personal and group guarantee.
Loan recommendation: recommendation of loan is based on category of the loan salary,
business and farming loan
Things to consider in recommending are:
 Cash flow with the bank.
 Duration/Retirement of the customer.
 Salary amount.
The above mentions will determine the amount that customer due for recommendation.
Loan Booking: is the process of creating a customer loan account and generating
repayment plan for the duration of the loan as approved by the MCC e.g. monthly
instalment or weekly instalment, this is done immediately after approval.
Steps involved in loan booking are as follows:
 log into bank platform (cute banker lite)
 open account setup and enter customer account
 click on create related account and select loan account. Note the loan account will
automatically be generated with a unique code 03010 follow by the last five (5)
digit of the customers account number.
 save and wait for approval from manager.
 after approval then you now open the loan account and generate the approved
instalment.
Loan disbursement: this is the process of reserving or making loan (cash) available to the
customer, in loan disbursement the main key activities are:
 Provide Bank contract/agreement letter to the customer, stating amount approved,
total interest charges, bank processing fee, repayment starting date, total repayment
amount, monthly instalment and some other bank policy and customer hereby sign
and receive a copy of the letter.
 Make the loan available to the customer by debit the customer loan account and
credit his service account.
Loan monitoring: is the supervision of the facility granted, monitoring of loans
commence immediately after facility is granted to the customer to determine early sign of a

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potential defaulting, during monitoring some useful information regarding the customer
business performance could be received which will impact on their repayment.
The purpose of loan monitoring is to ensure that;
 the loan is being utilize for it's intended purpose and confirm the condition on
ground before disbursement has not materially change.
 impressing upon borrower seriousness of his loan commitment
 noting any change in business location
 observing any lapses in good management practice
Tracing of costumer file: is the process of finding customer file using costumer given file
number as a referral number, the costumers files are kept in shelves.
In standard microfinance bank customer record keeping is consider as a major job
that cannot be overlooked due to it legal and strategic implication, they are considered as
the backbones of the bank it is absolutely necessary to store, preserve and manage them so
that they can be use for feature flow of financial activities.
Why Tracing Customers Files?
 Monitoring and Recovery: recovery officer use customer file for frequent
monitoring and study of the repayment process.
 Communication: loan officer use customer file in loan recycling process.
 Administration: auditors use customer record for decision making process in the
credit department.
Loan recovery: is the process of collecting facility granted back after a duration of
agreement reach, recovery start by notifying the client before the repayment date
commence. This will be by giving a customer Formal letter with a heading
"REPAYMENT REMINDER" and the body will carry appropriate communication on
repayment starting date, monthly/weekly instalment and total repayment amount. carrying
manager, head of credit and loan officer sign.
In recovery, we classified the following stages.
 0 days performing
 1-30 days pass and watch
 31-60 days Sub-standard
 61-90 days Doubtful
 91 or more days loss
3.2 Challenges Encountered

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 i. The credit department face the challenge of inadequate staff to handle all
activities in the department so as a result of that, IT student work throughout
and close like normal staff in the organization.
ii. The organization is operating half way online and therefore paper work is
much and the work is stressful.

CHAPTER FOUR
4.1 Summary
During my six-month student industrial work experience scheme (SIWES), I
acquired a lot and get to know much about credit activity (loan) and other financial
activities.
4.2 Conclusion
The student industrial work Experience Scheme (SIWES) has broadened my
knowledge and shown nice in to future possibilities and a lot of opportunity that
lied around the corner for becoming a Credit/loan officer in future. Credit appraisal,
call over report and tracing of customers files for loan monitoring have been the
daily activity in credit department. These activities are of great importance and will
reduce too much defaulting.
4.3 Recommendation
Considering the significance of ITF which aims to expose students to industry-
based skills necessary for a smooth transition for the classroom to the work which
also offer the students of tertiary institutions the opportunity of being familiarized
and exposed to the needed experience in handling machinery and equipment which
a usually not available in the educational institutions. I thereby state the following
recommendation to enables the sustainability of the training:
 The school should make sure that the students attach his/herself to the right
industry or organization for proper and adequate training.

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  The school should send lecturer from students’ department to monitor and
supervise their students by visiting them in their place of attachment to
really see what they are into for proper assessment.

4.4 References

MAUTECH logbook.

My personal experience.

My SIWES organizational IT supervisor in people of Lamus Umar Issac and

Mansur Bafeso.

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