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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed that over N688.35 billion has been recorded as the value of moveable assets registered on the National Collateral Registry platform since inception.
CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele made this disclosure yesterday in Abuja at the 11th Annual Banking and Finance conference organised by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria.
According to Emefiele, “since the commencement of active cooperation in May 2016, 552 financial institutions have registered 32,645 financing statements valued at over N688.35 billion, $33.4 million and €60 million on the platform.” The CBN Governor described the National Collateral Registry as one of the programmes that makes funds available to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sub-sector of the economy.
He said the National Collateral Registry “is a financial infrastructure introduced to support the crippling market by enabling micro enterprises to use their moveable assets as collateral for bank loans.”
He said, “I am very optimistic that the collateral registry will have tremendous impacts on MSME lending in Nigeria and in the foreseeable future. “This is especially considering with the recent launching of the economic recovery and growth plan which intends to leverage on the power of the private sector in its economic recovery and transformative growth by prioritizing all MSME’s in all critical sectors as a significant source of long term growth.”
Other intervention programmes initiated to support the development of MSME funding in the country he said include: Small and Medium Enterprise creative guarantee scheme; and the Entrepreneurship Development Center.
Godwin Emefiele then challenged banks and other financial institutions to come up with innovative ways to fund the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sub-sector of the economy.
The CBN governor urged all participants at the conference to debate constructively on the ways to further support MSMEs in Nigeria to be able to perform their primary role of enhancing economic growth and inclusive development.
On its part, the CBN, Emefiele said, has “developed many programmes to reduce the risk of lending to the sector for MSMEs to play it’s role of job creation, there is need to channel more funds to the sector.”
In his welcome address at the event, President and Chairman of Council, CIBN, Uche Olowu, lamented the plight of MSMEs in Nigeria to include “lack of finance and high tax regime, they are further burdened by many and most times by conflicting and duplicated regulatory and other supervisory and government agencies.”
Source: The Nation
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