- CBAN Urges Telcos, Discos, Others to Embrace Credit Bureaux
The Credit Bureau Association of Nigeria has called on telecommunications companies, utility providers and other non-financial institutions that provide services on credit to fully tap into the benefits of using the credit bureaux as enshrined in the recently signed Credit Reporting Act.
In a statement, it said the move would help to move Nigeria up significantly in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business index rankings.
The Chairman, CBAN, Mr. “Tunde Popoola, made this call during an interactive session with journalists in Lagos.
According to him, the Credit Reporting Act provides for credit information sharing between the credit bureaux and lenders such as banks and other financial institutions, and institutions that provide services on credit such as telecommunications companies, electricity distribution companies, water corporations and retailers.
Popoola said that while the financial sector had complied with the provision of the Act, by sharing information with the credit bureaux and using the credit reports from the credit bureaux to determine the credit worthiness of their customers, most operators in the non-financial sector were yet to fully utilise the services of the credit bureau.
He, however, stated that CBAN would in the coming months begin a series of sensitisation programmes to enlighten operators in the non-financial sector on the Credit Reporting Act, the benefits of complying with the Act and how this would impact on the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
According to him, access to credit is critical to economic growth and could be considered to be the motor for driving private sector development adding that more often than not, credit applications get rejected due to insufficient credit history and information for the lender to use to make a reasonable judgement as to whether to extend credit or not.
He mentioned that in Nigeria, more than 90 per cent of private enterprises, the Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises had no access to credit or had very limited access.
Citing the World Bank report, he said that loans provided by banks to the private sector were only 14 per cent of Gross Domestic Product in Nigeria, as opposed to 149 per cent in South Africa.
To improve this, he called for adequate credit information sharing by all concerned.
