Credit Management Professionals Charged on Transparent Credit Appraisal

Credit management professionals across industries in the economy have been called upon to strictly observe ethics, transparency, and duty of care in their handling of the customer credit appraisal process.

Nigeria’s statutory body for the control, supervision, and regulation of the credit management profession, the National Institute of Credit Administration, gave this advice.

In a statement, the Registrar/Chief Executive Officer (NICA), Prof. Chris Onalo, said these attributes are necessary for a sound credit system.

Onalo said: “When we talk about being ethical, transparent and carrying out duty of care to make sure that credit appraisal process is transparent, we are looking to keep credit professionals on their toes by being very professional, ethical, and transparent. This is against the backdrop of credit possibly going bad as a result of unethical conducts, some of which may not be economically motivated, but could be factors that can be prevented.

“When a credit professional is appraising a customer for either credit line, credit review, or credit limit upgrade, the customer must be thoroughly assessed based on the knowledge of the customer and the industry that the credit professional has had.”

He noted that credit assessment, appraisal or evaluation must put into consideration the business growth, or business downtown experience that the credit professional may have observed with the customer over time.”

He said NICA is holding credit professionals to that commitment. To this end, when credit appraisal is being carried out, appropriate credit and business information must be gathered to build mitigation bridges against defaults, he said.

Onalo noted, the bigger the information you got on the credit customer, the more likelihood you have on the success of that account, except other things happen which are beyond the control of both the credit customer, the credit provider organisation, or the credit professional.