International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Wednesday, December 11 came hard on Africa’s largest economy saying that it is still behind all of its peers using all indices to analyse access to credit.
IFC, through its country manager, Eme Essien Lore acknowledged that though a lot has been done in making credit available to businesses “but a lot needs to be done”.
Lore spoke at the 10th-anniversary celebration of CRC Credit Bureau Limited. The event was not to celebrate CRC but to stimulate discussion in the important area of its focus which is access to credit.
In her anniversary lecture titled “evolving a new lending model for the economic development of Nigeria”, she warned that GDP average growth rate of 2 percent per annum will not be enough to take many Nigerians out of poverty line.
She warned that by 2030, Nigeria will have 120millions poor people if the current trend is not stopped.
“Access to credit/finance is a key constraint to private sector growth in Nigeria. We have seen much progress in the past 10 years. A lot has been done and a lot still needs to be done”, she stated.
She is optimistic that the CRC Credit Bureau will continue to confront the challenges around access to credit.
“Nigeria plays an important role in Africa and the country is critical in the growth of the continent. There is urgent need to ramp up activities that will help MSMEs grow and create jobs for the citizens”, IFC said.
IFC wants Nigeria to build confidence in the whole credit ecosystem.
“Confidence is not something one can buy or sell. There has to be confident on the side of both the lenders and borrowers.
“Credit reporting is a critical part of the solutions and part of the foundation for building the required confidence in the whole ecosystem.
“We see the need to develop a more innovative lending structure for the agricultural sector.”, IFC said.
“Being able to adapt to the needs of the borrowers should be very important to every lending institution”, IFC country manager added.
