- Credit Bureaux Stimulating Business, Economic Growth – CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria says aside of significantly reducing non-performing loans in the country’s financial system, credit bureaux have helped to stimulate the growth rate of businesses in the country as well as the economy at large.
Aside of creating a credit culture, the apex bank said credit bureaux have created a lower interest rate system, reduced the need for physical collateral, optimised decision-making processes, helped people escape poverty, and created access to better economic life.
The Governor, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, said this at the unveiling of the new corporate identity of XDS Credit Bureau in Lagos on Thursday. The company’s new identity is First Central Credit Bureau.
“Credit bureaux have helped higher growth rate for businesses and individuals and consequently aided economy growth micro-economically,” Emefiele said.
The CBN governor, who was represented by the Director, Banking Supervision, CBN, Mr. Abdulhaziz Barawu, said the CBN was unrelenting in its promotion and support of credit bureaux for the greater good of the economy, and thus, inviting all stakeholder to unite on this front in terms of integration and synergy, so that everyone, including the ‘vulnerable and excluded’ can all benefit from the credit extension advantage enhanced by credit bureau system and credit reporting.
He said, “For credit bureau system to be successful as an enforcement tool and benefit the financial sector, it needed to be either government-led or government-regulated, hence it was necessary for the CBN to be actively involved in the promotion and regulation of credit bureaux in Nigeria.
“The outcome has been successfully, entities now use credit more responsibly, non-performing loans have reduced significantly and we have achieved payment of stale, lost and written-off loans and eliminated default risk to a large extent.”
In his address, the Chairman, First Central Credit Bureau, Moses Ihonde, said, “Companies rebrand for various reasons; but ours was borne out of a need to reposition the company in the industry and to further develop our corporate identity. After the exit of our South African technical partner, Xpert Decisions Systems, from which the name XDS was coined, the board and the management decided to reposition the company to sustain and build on the gains of the past for more inclusive competitive advantage in the industry.”
