CBN To Reinvent Collateral Registry For Efficiency
BY CHINYERE OBIORA, LAGOS – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will leverage on recent positive endorsement by the World Bank to open more business opportunities in Nigeria through the National Collateral Registry (NCR).
Acting Director, Corporate Communications, of CBN, Isaac Okorafor, said efforts are on to ensure the NCR quickly moves to the next segment of its mandate implementation and effective service delivery.
Okorafor said on Monday that CBN’s commitment to ease business practices in the country will not be compromised as it works towards sustainable economic growth and development.
He explained that the apex bank’s efforts at strengthening and re-positioning the NCR were fallouts from recent World Bank report, which indicated Nigeria’s meteoric rise in the “Ease of Doing Business Index”.
The index currently rates Nigeria at 145th from the earlier position of 169th, out of 190 countries.
According to Okorafor, the CBN, within its statutory mandate, would reinforce the NCR towards improving Nigeria’s current sixth (6th) ranking on the “Getting Access to Credit” index.
Speaking on the CBN’s role in ensuring the country’s financial sector is healthy and thriving, the apex bank spokesman said reduction of information asymmetry had assisted lenders to reach sound decisions on credit solutions and ultimately improved access to credit by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The NCR, since its inauguration in 2016, has served as a catalyst to credit enhancement by considerably civilizing the credit culture in the nation’s banking system.
Similarly, the NCR has provided an environment conducive for MSMEs to leverage considerable part of their moveable assets as collateral for loans from the financial institutions to grow their businesses.
NCR’s activities have effectively complemented the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP) initiative already embraced by many states as an instrument for employment generation; job creation; and food sufficiency across the country.
