Uche Usim, Abuja
The Bank of Agriculture (BoA), has hailed the National Collateral Registry (NCR) established by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), describing it as an efficient mechanism that has helped it register assets of 15,000 small businesses valued at about N36.9 billion.
The Managing Director of the bank, Alhaji Kabiru Adamu, stated this recently in Abuja at the first national workshop for judicial officers on secured transactions on Movable Assets Act 2017 and the NCR.
According to him, the NCR has helped to reduce the risks of lending to the sector to enable the Micro Medium and Small Enterprises (MSMEs), while playing its role as a robust job creator.
He said: “BoA has between November 2016 to date registered about 36.9 billion assets and more than 15,000 small holders.
“Apart from providing alternative to traditional collateral in Nigerian banking industry, the registry is equally generating database for credit history for micro enterprises which was a problem for the banks.
“To us in the BoA, it has assisted us in getting better security for our loans and perfecting new loan clearance who are indebted to the bank but refuse to declare its source on database by conducting search on database of the registry by use of the Biometric Verification Number (BVN).
In his remarks at the event, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele called on the participants to recommend the establishment of a special court to handle cases of NCR.
“This will encourage the banking industry in Nigeria to deploy micro credit to MSMEs. We cannot thank the CBN enough for the establishment of NCR and that goes to tell you that clearly, the current CBN governor has left indelible mark in the sands of history we are eminently proud of him as a bank”, he stated.
