ACTN: Nigerian Corporates Finding it Difficult to Access Trade Finance

Dike Onwuamaeze

The newly elected President of Association of Corporate Treasurers of Nigeria (ACTN), Mr. Yinka Ogunnubi, has declared that operators in the Nigerian real sector are finding it difficult to obtain trade finance from Nigerian banks to import inventories and raw materials.

Ogunnubi, who is also the group treasurer of the CFAO Nigeria Limited, attributed the poor access to trade finance to the recent downgrading of Nigeria’s risk rating and the current acute scarcity of foreign exchange in the country’s economy.

He also said that he would devote his tenure as the president of the ACTN to increase the visibility of the association and create avenues for dialogue between members of the ACTN and some regulatory agencies like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in order to provide feedback to the government on the impacts of its policies on the real sector.

Ogunnubi said: “Most of our challenges have to do with the acute foreign exchange scarcity. Our members are facing acute challenges with trade finance, which is also connected with the FX situation.

“The downgrading of Nigeria’s risk rating has made it difficult for Nigerian banks to maintain their trade finance lines. So, it is becoming difficult to get trade finance from banks to be able to maintain our inventories. So, it is a challenge and we need government to solve the policy problems like the issue of the multiple FX rates so that it will be easy for us to get trade finance. It is something that needs to be resolved.”

The immediate past President of ACTN, Mrs. Victory Olumuyiwa, in her remarks expressed happiness on the quality and experience of Ogunnubi and emphasised the need for continuity and reaching out to other corporates in order to increase the ACTN’s membership.

This, she said, would make the association to become an integral part of the treasury workplace, especially as related to efficiency in the interaction with financial institutions and making the treasury function more seamless.