CBN, World Bank Move to Drive Access to Credit for MSMEs in Nigeria

Seriki Adinoyi in Jos

National Collateral Registry (NRC), a financial infrastructure set up by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank group have expressed readiness to address the challenges around access to finance by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.

Expressing their readiness during a town hall meeting facilitated by Deutsche Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) for MSMEs in the ICT, E-commerce & Poultry value and Financial Institutions in Jos, Plateau State, the Registrar of NRC, Mr. Musa Bulus said his organization is in fulfillment of the CBN’s resolve to further deepen credit delivery to MSMEs and also reduce the challenges of collateral as a requirement for loans to MSMEs.

Represented by the Principal Manger at NRC, Mr. Christian Nwosu, the Registrar said that NRC is an online database that allows lenders register their interest and determine their priority interests over movable property taken as collateral for loans.

According to the Registrar, the NCR is a notice-based registry for collaterals and an online centralised, publicly available data that allows financial service providers to register security interests in movable assets after accepting such collateral for loan.

From inception of the registry till date, over 500,000 MSMEs have accessed credit from various banks in total of sixteen trillion naira using their farm equipment, inventory, jewelry, farm products etc.

He said that the town hall meeting dubbed ‘Value Chain Physical meetings’ aimed at sensitizing MSMEs operators and representatives of lending banks, explaining that the development facilitates lending to individuals, farmers, macro entrepreneurs, and small and medium-scale businesses.

He added that the information registered with NCR will enable other financial institutions verify whether movable collateral given by MSMEs owners in seeking a loan has been used in other Banks as collateral by the loan takers.

Urging participants to explore the opportunities provided by the NRC to grow their business value chain, Bulus said that previous bogus assets required as collateral to access loans were no longer needed, and that the law allows loan takers to use the items given as collateral for business since the items will aid repayment of the loan.

Local Economic and Value Chain Development advisor, Stella Yusuf DimLong noted that GIZ provides technical cooperation as well as working with partners in private, public and civil organizations for sustainable economic growth and development to improve outcomes, job creations and income.

She also urged participants to explore the interactive session to ask questions on improving their business goals.