NCR Registers N1.26trn Assets As Collateral

• Lists 20 aircraft, household items, others on portal

BY COBHAM NSA, ABUJA – The National Collateral Registry (NCR) says over 65,370 moveable assets worth about N1.26 trillion have been registered on its platform as at March 20, 2019.

Among these registered moveable assets are 20 privately-owned aircraft, motorcycles, motor vehicles, jewelries, refrigerators, assorted electronics and consumer household items put together by 165,456 depositors.

The Registry has also documented about N74.53 trillion as the required amount to bridge the financing gap for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with N54.42 trillion meant for the informal sector and N20.11 trillion going to the formal sector.

Similarly, the NCR said as part of enhancing access to finance by businesses, especially the MSMEs, about 600 financial institutions are currently leveraging its infrastructure to offer credits to groups and individuals for their business promotion and expansion.

Registrar of the NCR, Alhaji Mohammed Mainasara, gave the breakdown of registered institutions on the portal as 21 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs); 552 Micro-finance Banks (MfBs); 34 Finance firms; One (1) Non-interest bank; 14 Non-bank financial institutions; four (4) Merchant Banks; and Four (4) Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).

Speaking on the theme: ‘National Collateral Registry: Enhancing ease of access to finance’ at the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) Forum in Abuja, Alhaji Mainasara said the NCR, established by an Act of 2017 as a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) initiative, has already registered different categories of depositors on its financial-inclusiveness platform.

He said the list of depositors include 157,077 individuals; 735 large businesses; 2,279 medium businesses; 3,457 micro-businesses and 1,908 small businesses.

Mainasara stated that the NCR, as a data-bank where security interests in moveable assets are registered and used as collaterals for loans from financial institutions, is out to improve access to finance as well as induce prompt payment in a win-win for both the borrower and lender.

Also, the Registry enables borrowers to demonstrate their credit worthiness while providing opportunity for lenders to assess their priority interests in potential claims against any particular security instrument.

The Registrar said aside easing access to credit facility by MSMEs and ultimately reducing the risk associated with their funding, the NCR has also contributed to Nigeria’s upward ranking in the World Bank rating on Ease of Doing Business Report by 24 points from 169th in 2017 to 145th in 2018 out of 190 countries.

“Specifically, the ‘getting credit ranking’ improved from 32nd to 6th position while the country is being adjudged as one of the 10 most improved economies”, he said

Mainasara said the Registry, operationalizes the CBN’s ‘Regulations on Registration of Security Interests in Movable Property by Banks and other Financial Institutions’, as a web-based system that allows lenders to determine any prior security interests, as well as to register security interests over movable assets provided as collateral.

According to him, “The benefits of the collateral registry include enabling businesses to leverage their assets to obtain credit for growth, improve assets liquidity especially short-term assets, and allow asset diversification as well as to reduce cost and promote prudent lending.”