The Managing Director of CRC Credit Bureau Limited, Mr Tunde Popoola has urged the federal government to speedily implement a unique identifier for every Nigerian to have easy access to credit.
Popoola gave the advice at the bi-monthly forum of the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) with the theme, “Economic Growth through improved Access to Credit”, in Lagos.
“A significant issue still affecting access to credit in Nigeria is lack of unique identifier for every inhabitant.
“The country has multiple forms of government issued identifiers for individuals, including National ID, Bank Verification Number, Drivers’ License, Voters Card and International Passport.
“The truth is, there is no need for us to have cards as means of identification, what we need is just a unique number for all,” he said.
The Managing- Director said that countries in Europe, as well as America, Egypt and India had unique identifiers which had helped to improve their economies.
Popoola said: “India commenced deployment of unique identifier in 2009, today, about 1.1billion Indians out of a population of 1.3 billion have government-issued unique identification numbers.
“Nigeria also needs to embrace a unique identifier”.
The CRC boss said lack of unique identifiers had made data matching in Nigeria tedious, cumbersome and expensive for bureaux.
He said that a bureau relied on identification of data subjects to be able to match and merge data and develop innovative products for the market.
Popoola said that the BVN introduced by the CBN does not fully solve the unique identifier challenge, as data providers were unable to fully provide BVNs for legacy accounts.
The Managing- Director commended efforts of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) in ensuring citizens registration, urging them to speed up the coverage of the country.
He said that unique identifier would enhance the efficiency of block chain and machine learning technology and their deployment to ease access to credit.
Popoola said that prompt dealings and disposal of commercial cases by the judiciary, especially those between lenders and borrowers, would help the system.
He said that it would engender confidence and boost a credit economy.
According to him, a few initiatives have been introduced in this sphere, but more still needs to be done.
He canvassed the formalisation of SMEs and adoption of basic governance practices to improve their access to finance.
“Simple financial record keeping, auditing of financial records, putting structures around the day-to-day running of the business can go a long way in building the confidence of financial institutions and other providers of funds in dealing with them,” Popoola said.