Getting Credit
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Making Access To Credit Easier
In order to boost access to credit by SMEs in Nigeria, the Credit Reporting Act of 2017 and the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017, were passed. The Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act 2017 enables SMEs to use movable assets (Vehicles, farm equipment, jewellery, machinery) as collateral to get a loan from banks. The passage of Credit Reporting Act of 2017 gives borrowers the legal right to access credit data from credit bureaus who provide credit scores for banks and other financial institutions
Reforms implemented for the ease of getting credit
Impact
Creation of National Collateral Registry (NCR) to support the use of movable assets.
- SMEs can now use movable assets as collateral for loans such as motor vehicles, machinery, inventory, even jewelry
- Lenders can easily access all the required information on the NCR via the web platform
- Lenders can show their interest in an asset and have knowledge of it, if the same asset is already in use as collateral for another loan
- Reduced incidence of defaults by eliminating serial defaulters
- Reduced cost of verifying borrowers to lenders by 35% leading to reduced cost of credit and defaults on loans
Impact
Passage of the Credit Bureau Act 2017
- Borrowers have the legal right to access their credit reports from the Credit Bureaus
- Credit scores can now be used to secure credit to make various purchases by dialling *565*8# or visiting www.creditregistry.ng/credit connection, www.crccreditbureau.com/product/crc-self-enquiry, www.snapcheck.firstcentralcreditbureau.com
REFORM
OUTCOMES
The NCR had registered 628 financial institutions, including 551 microfinance banks and 21 Deposit Money Banks.
Registered collaterals had increased to 58,843 with 39,786 financing statements valued at N1.23 trillion, US$1.14bn and €6,08m.
Over 16,500 searches had been conducted on the NCR portal.