The National Institute of Credit Administration (NICA) has called on the Federal Government to immediately capitalise the National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC) with N2 trillion to expand access to credit for businesses and productive sectors of the economy.
The Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of NICA, Prof. Chris Onalo, made the call in a statement on Sunday on the state of Nigeria’s credit economy.
Onalo said the recent recapitalisation of Nigerian banks would not automatically translate into economic growth unless deliberate measures were introduced to channel more credit into productive sectors.
He said private sector credit stood at 28% of Gross Domestic Product as of June 2026, significantly below the 60% to 80% average recorded in emerging economies.
What the NICA CEO is saying
According to Onalo, lending rates of between 32% and 35% have made formal credit inaccessible to key sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, agriculture, housing and education.
Onalo said banks had also become increasingly risk-averse despite improved liquidity following the recapitalisation exercise.
He attributed the reluctance to lend to weaknesses in Nigeria’s credit infrastructure, limited credit bureau coverage, weak collateral enforcement and slow judicial recovery processes.
The NICA chief executive warned that the widening credit gap was pushing millions of Nigerians towards informal lenders and digital loan platforms, a development he said could worsen household debt and weaken the capital base of small businesses.
He described the situation as a “credit paradox”, where funds were available within the banking system but were not circulating sufficiently within the productive economy.
- “Given the recent robust bank recapitalisation, the Federal Government should immediately capitalise the…
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