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By Henry Uche
National Institute of Credit Administration of Nigeria has said that better access to credit will lead to increased entrepreneurship and boost economic development.
Speaking with journalists recently, the Chief Executive Officer, NICA, Prof. Chris Onalo, said Nigeria has huge potential which can be unlocked when cash transactions are replaced with an economy that thrives on credit.
“A credit based economy will give people equal opportunity to advance their entrepreneurship and personal skills development. Business oppourtunities are everywhere and the only way you can harness the resources that we have in this country is when you throw the economy open and encourage people who don’t have access to finance to get the funds. Encourage people to buy and invest, not necessarily waiting for when they collect their salary, especially for those who are on fixed income. The small and medium scale enterprises that are the resilient factors that hold the economic plank of sustainability should have access to credit, and get very strong support from the government which can stand in place as collateral security,” Onalo said.
He said NICA is open to addressing human needs and is helping to implement government economic policy agenda for the country, noting that cash economy has affected political values and encouraged unimaginable corruption.
Onalo said, “We need to completely run the affairs of the country on the basis of integrity. The beauty of credit economic is it institute’s values, institutes integrity and the honest truth and reliability.”
The professor noted that NICA is a regulatory professional body on matters relating to credit management profession in the country, as well as supporting the economy to transit from cash based system to credit cultured economic.
The government, he said, has confidence in NICA and with government’s solid determination to change the economic structure of the country, NICA, is partnering with it to advance economic development and particularly, moving the economic landscape from what it had been since independence to a new horizon.
