NICA urges professionalism among credit managers

The National Institute of Credit Administration (NICA) has urged credit management professionals across industries to strictly observe the ethics and duty of care in handling customers’ credit appraisal process.

This was made known in a statement last week.

Chris Onalo, registrar/CEO of NICA highlighted that those attributes were necessary for a sound credit system. The intention was to keep credit professionals on their toes by being professional, ethical, and transparent.

“When we talk about being ethical, transparent, and carrying out the duty of care to make sure that credit appraisal processes are transparent, we are looking to keep credit professionals on their toes by being very professional, ethical, and transparent.”

He added that it is against the backdrop of credit possibly going bad as a result of unethical conduct, some of which might not be economically motivated but could be factors that can be prevented.

According to Onalo, when a credit professional is appraising a customer for either a credit line, credit review, or credit limit upgrade, the customer must be thoroughly assessed based on the knowledge of the customer and the industry of the credit professional.

He added that credit assessment, appraisal, or evaluation must consider the business growth, or business downtown experience that the credit professional may have observed with the customer over time.

“This is important so that what the credit professional sees at the end of the day, or at any time, is how the credit customers’ business can continuously be positioned and repositioned for growth, expansion and sustainable contribution to the economy,” Onalo said.