President Bola Tinubu, under the Presidential Council on Industrial Revitalisation, has established a Technical Working Group to develop the requisite framework for enhancing consumer credit in Nigeria and to achieve the country’s targeted $1 trillion economy by 2026.
The Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka Anite, disclosed this in a statement after the inauguration of the Technical Working Group for Consumer Finance in Abuja recently.
According to her, an efficient consumer credit system is a highly essential component of a booming economy, as it works to improve market efficiency and fill in gaps in consumption and productivity by providing consumers immediate access to credit and allowing them to make purchases ahead of time.
She noted that the absence of a well-structured consumer credit system has been a significant impediment to financial inclusion and economic prosperity.
“The establishment of the Technical Working Group by the Presidential Council on Industrial Revitalization is timely and strategic, an initiative aimed, among other things, at proposing and implementing a viable institutional and regulatory framework that can significantly improve the consumer credit landscape.
“Nigeria has numerous financial institutions and credit schemes, but many Nigerians still face substantial hurdles in accessing credit due to stringent eligibility criteria, high-interest rates, identity-related challenges, fragmented data sources for proof of livelihood and financial worth, a lack of awareness or understanding of credit processes, and inadequate credit available for lending,” she said.
