To Facilitate improved access to finance, the National Collateral Registry, NCR and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, GIZ has sensitized operators of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs in Plateau State.
The MSMEs’ operators were equally exposed to financial service providers to interact with them on possible ways of accessing finances to grow their businesses and contribute effectively to the economy of the State and nation.
The sensitization, done at a town hall meeting with the theme: MSMEs haven: Improving access to the nation’s main economic drivers, was held in Jos on Thursday for MSMEs in the areas of ICT, e-commerce, and poultry value chains.
Addressing the participants, the Registrar of the National Collateral Registry, Mr. Musa Bulus, represented by Mr. Christian Nwosu, a Principal Manager in the organization, who gave an orientation on how to operate the NCR portal; explained that the organization was set up to bridge the gaps and improve access to credit to ensure financial inclusion.
He added that NCR is a data bank that allows MSMEs to prove their creditworthiness; enables responsible lending and advises business owners to only patronize financial institutions that are MSMEs friendly and understand the needs so that they can give proper guidance.
His words, “…National Collateral Registry is a financial infrastructure set up by the CBN with support from the International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group to address the challenges around access to finance by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
“It is an online database that allows lenders to register their interest and determine their priority interests over movable property taken as collateral for loans… From inception, over 500,000 MSMEs have accessed credit from various banks in a total of N16trn using their farm equipment, inventory, jewelry, farm products, etc…”
Earlier, Stella Dimlong, the Local Economic and Value Chain Development Advisor with GIZ noted that small businesses always name lack of access to finance as a key challenge but in the real sense, other factors like lack of information, lack of proper communication, lack of financial literacy and others can hinder the growth of businesses hence the need for them utilize available resources that can help them grow their businesses.
She stressed, “We are here to talk to the financial institutions and to further partner with you the business people to see how we can help our businesses to grow,” and urged them to use the opportunity to network and get the right information to add value to their businesses.
Participants at the meeting asked questions and got clarifications as financial institutions introduced them to the various packages they can explore to grow their businesses.
