The Central Bank of Nigeria has said that it recorded a huge leap in the value of financing statements under the National Collateral Registry (NCR) in the last five years from N487 billion and $20 million in 2017 to N718.0 billion and $1.1 billion respectively at the close of 2018.

Governor of the Central Bank, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, in a recent address, in Washington DC, United States of America (USA), declared that one of the major achievement recorded by the CBN in the last five years has been the establishment of the NCR, which was put in place by the CBN in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

According to the CBN Governor “As at December 2018, 456 financial institutions, comprising 411 microfinance banks, 34 financial companies and 11 non-bank financial institutions were registered on the NCR portal. This brought the cumulative number of financial institutions registered to 628, comprising 21 commercial banks, 551 microfinance banks, four merchant banks, four development financial institutions, one specialized (non-interest) bank, 34 finance companies and 13 non-bank financial institutions”.

“Of this number, 70 financial institutions registered their priority interests in moveable assets pledged by 51,258 borrowers, valued at N718.0 billion, $1.1 billion and 23,000 euros, through 17,042 financing statements. The Naira value of financing statement in 2018 was 47.4 per cent higher than the corresponding value of N487.3 billion in 2017. Similarly, the value of the US dollar registered was significantly higher than the corresponding value of $20 million in 2017”.

The NCR is a strategic initiative aimed at creating an integrated financial system that will be used as a lead agent of change to achieve Nigeria’s economic goal. It seeks to deepen credit delivery to Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through enhanced acceptability of moveable assets (equipment, machinery, vehicles, crops, livestock, account receivables, inventories, jewelries, etc.) as collateral for loans by financial institutions.

Reeling out further successes recorded by the bank under his leadership, Emefiele disclosed that in the last five years also, the CBN consolidated on the Payment System Vision 2020 (PSV2020) which “has necessitated the shift of focus to managing the risk in the payment system”.

He said from an era where there were no alternative payment channels or such were scarce, inefficient and unreliable, the CBN, working with banks in Nigeria, has achieved among others the introduction of Cheque Truncation System; Revision of the Nigeria Cheque Standards and Nigeria Cheque Printers Accreditation Scheme (NICPAS); introduction of Cash-less Policy; implementation of the Nigeria Central Switch; establishment of the Nigeria electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF); implementation of the Bank Verification Number and Watch-list and the implementation of the Real-Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS).

Other milestones recorded by the CBN according to the apex bank boss are the interoperability and shared/multifunctional Automated Teller Machines (ATMs); increased in the efficiency of cheque clearing and settlement with reduction of clearing cycle from T=2 to T+1; the full licensing of 25 Mobile Money Operators; the licensing of agent bankers and super-agent bankers as well as the instant payment for intra and inter-bank fund transfer.