The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday said it has captured assets belonging to individuals and firms worth N1.26 trillion since the establishment of the National Collateral Registry in 2017.
The Registry was established through the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act, 2017 passed by the National Assembly with the principal aim of improving access to finance particularly for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), who have been perennially starved of capital by banks because due to lack of collateral.
Speaking at a workshop in Abuja at the weekend, the Registrar, National Collateral Registry, Development Finance Department of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mohammed Mainasara further explained that the registry exists to enhance financial inclusion in Nigeria by facilitating access to credit secured with movable assets as well as facilitate perfection of security interests in moveable assets.
He said: “In addition to the N1.26 trillion assets, there are assets in foreign currency of $1.15bn and €6.08m that were also registered”.
A breakdown of the figures showed that 157,077 individuals registered assets worth N135.41bn, $640.66m , while assets worth N871.76b, $1.14bn and €6.05m were registered by 735 large businesses.
Mainasara further revealed that 2,279 medium sized businesses registered assets worth N230.98bn and $3.4m while assets worth N20.4bn, $117,399 and €22,949 were also registered on the registry.
In terms of the categories of assets that were registered on the platform, he said that a total of 64,370 assets were registered during the period.
Giving a breakdown of the figure, he explained that documents of title/negotiable instruments with a total of 17,657 accounted for a huge chunk of the assets in the Registry.
This is followed by motor vehicles with 13,425 while 10,579 consumer/household goods have also been registered on the platform.
Other collaterals registered on the platform are inventory, other intangibles, planes, plant and machinery, securities, timber, fixtures, intellectual property, farm products, equipment electronics (television, refrigerator, projector), deposit accounts, boats, accounts receivables, and accessions.
He explained that Nigeria’s quest for inclusive economic growth and development would be futile if the country fails to adequately ease access to finance to MSMEs.
He described the MSME as the main driver of economic growth in Nigeria, assuring that the apex bank was totally committed the addressing numerous challenges facing them.
He said that the Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Act, 2017 allows borrowers to seek credit from any financial institution, leveraging assets like jewelry, farm products, and vehicles as collateral.
“The decision of the apex bank to push for the establishment of the act was to enhance financial inclusion by expanding the use of other assets aside land as collateral.
“The NCR enables businesses to leverage their assets to obtain credit for growth, improves the liquidity of assets especially short term assets such as account receivables, makes assets diversification possible in financial institutions by efficiently spreading risk and providing banks with profitable lending opportunities in the MSME sector.
“We are gradually building the confidence of banks and other financial institutions in movable assets financing as over 600 financial institutions have registered and leveraged the infrastructure to advance credit to individuals and businesses.”