The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Consumer Credit Corporation, Uzoma Nwagba, has commended financial institutions for their interest in the scheme.
In a statement made available to The PUNCH on Monday, he said 151 financial institutions had indicated interest in participating in the scheme.
According to Nwagba, the financial institutions range from commercial banks, microfinance institutions, finance companies, fintechs, mortgage banks, and cooperatives.
The CrediCorp is a Federal Government corporation with a mandate to expand consumer credit access to millions of Nigerians.
He added that 85 of those institutions were licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and served over 1.5 million consumer credit customers collectively.
Nwagba said, “The EOI remains an ongoing process and is quite detailed. We are pleased by the depth of engagement from financial institutions, especially the leading institutions of each type.
“This speaks to the excitement of financial institutions to partner with CrediCorp to receive our development finance or targeted credit guarantees. Together with our partners, we are poised to accelerate consumer credit access, ensuring that millions more Nigerians can access the financial resources and products they need to improve their lives, backed by their income.”
For the scheme, qualified and ready institutions are being reviewed and shortlisted for the pilot phase of the scheme.
According to Nwagba, the eagerness of financial institutions to partner with CrediCorp highlights the strategic vision and immense benefits of targeted consumer credit under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, on a mission to improve the quality of lives, help stem corruption, and catalyse industry.
A recent report released by the corporation on the EOI revealed highlights on consumer credit by the CBN-licensed institutions, including that the participating institutions report an average interest rate of 37 per cent annually on their consumer credit portfolios, with an average tenor for consumer credit being 26 months.
“The consumer credit portfolios for profitable institutions show an average NPL of 6 per cent, while the average NPL across all other credit is nine per cent. The commercial banks show a reverse pattern from the average (i.e. higher NPLs on consumer credit than other credit), likely due to a wider range of options to deploy their capital (e.g. corporates) and therefore deepened focus and expertise in those,” it stated.
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