Before now, Nigerians relocating to the United States of America had no financial credit records that the financial institutions in the world’s biggest economy could rely on for their creditworthiness in deciding if credit facilities should be extended to them.
Nigerians who approached financial institutions in the USA for credit facilities would have to show their financial integrity through a third party, mainly US citizens who would stand in as guarantors.
The same challenge was also the case with entrepreneurs, especially the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) wanting to access credit facilities from Nigerian banks. Banks have difficulties in trusting the credibility of their potential borrowers.
But with the advent of technology in the financial space, and leveraging on it, it is now possible to determine at first hand the credibility of anyone wishing to access credit facilities without going through the hurdles of providing surety and collateral.
The main technology used in this space is the Credit Score technology, which, upon key in the necessary information, grades the individual on a scale which determines how trustworthy or otherwise the potential borrower is.
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Players in the micro-financial industry such as Branch, Carbon (Paylater), and Kwickcash, have been using the technology to access the creditworthiness of a customer before determining the fate of such client, and have cumulatively paid out millions of naira in loan.
Marrying such technology with the use of Bank Verification Number (BVN), commercial banks have equally joined in the adventure.
Wema Bank, Sterling Bank, and Access Bank, among others, could easily give loans without necessarily providing collateral, initially associated with such transaction. Some banks even give loans by merely dialling Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) code, using your known transaction alert telephone number.
In extending such benefits to Nigerians relocating to the USA, CRC Credit Bureau has partnered Nova Credit, a US-based credit score firm.
This partnership will allow trustworthy Nigerians relocating to the US to use their international credit history to have access to credit opportunities, the opportunity that was previously unavailable to Nigerians.
The new service, known as Nova Connect, accesses individual Nigerian data from CRC Credit Bureau in Nigeria and translates such credit history data into the U.S. equivalent credit score in a format familiar to American underwriters.
Nova Connect merges and translates the two systems into what is understandable to American financial institutions, who use it to evaluate applications for credit products.
With this new opportunity, immigrants from Nigeria do not have to start from scratch and can start to benefit immediately from the credit history they built in their home country when they immigrate.
By using their international credit history to get a credit card or other products when they arrive, Nigerians can begin to build a U.S. Credit score.
This opportunity does not benefit those with a poor credit history in Nigeria.
CRC Credit Bureau provides a nationwide repository on credit profiles of corporate entities as well as consumers, thus improving the ability of credit providers and borrowers to make informed lending and borrowing decisions.
The bureau’s database covers the credit industry which includes commercial banks, non-bank institutions, retailers, utility service providers and fintech.
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