Charles Nwaoguji

Former President of Nigeria, President Olusegun Obasanjo has listed integrity and trust as important elements in managing credit-based economies.

Obasanjo, who stated this at the Annual Induction/Nigeria Credit Industry Award 2019 of the Instititute of Credit Administration (ICA) said that  today, there is strong credit availability in finance world for development-oriented programmes including those in agribusiness, education and the provision of infrastructure.

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“ To be successful player in this space, we must demonstrate trust and ability to manage creditlines judiciously, corruption free so that future generations of Nigerians who will pay back such debts are not economically imperilled,” he said. He  urged  the  Institute to make more efforts in training the more people. “I have known the importance of good credit management as a youth and even throughout my adult life. You will recall my efforts and those of my team as President to manage Nigeria’s credit and to exit our external debt at that time,” he added. Also, speaking at the event, the Deputy Governor, Corporate Services Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Edward  Adamu, said that MSMEs accounted for an estimated 96percent of enterprises in the major contributing sectors including Information and Communication, Mining and Quarrying, Agriculture, Transportation and Storage, as well as Other Services.

Adamu noted that MSMEs in Nigeria, like their counterparts in other jurisdictions, are faced with a number of hurdles that include low access to finance, poor infrastructure, multiple taxation, regulatory burden and sub-optimal implementation of the provision of the MSME policy. No doubt, previous interventions were unable to achieve desired results of promoting access to finance by MSMEs and the informal sector due to factors inherent to the MSMEs, such as absence of unique identification, poor managerial practices, inadequate financial education, lack of acceptable collateral and their inability to prepare acceptable business proposals that meet the strict lending requirements of financial institutions.