The National Co-operative Financing Agency of Nigeria (CFAN), says it will establish a credit guaranty fund to facilitate access to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise loans for cooperatives.
The Executive Secretary of CFAN, Mr Emmanuel Atama disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja.
Atama said the fund would help cooperatives to access both local and international loans from different organisations.
He noted that the plan was part of the resolutions at the end of the agency’s 4th summit.
According to him, the absence of the guaranty fund was responsible for SMEs not having access to fund.
“We have a membership base of between five and six million and we are looking at it that each member of the cooperative will contribute N1, 000.
“You require only 30 per cent to access micro, small and medium scale development fund and as they consistently make these contributions, the fund will continue to grow.
“We also have development partners who are working with us. We also believe that they will support the fund.
“Once we have guaranty fund, it will give room for us to access funds even from outside the country because there is a fund that is there to guaranty whatever we want to do,’’ he said.
Atama said the agency would also collaborate with the National Collateral Registry of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to address the challenge of outrageous collateral requirement for loans.
“People believe that when you want to take loans and they request for collateral, you go after landed properties and some other big things but now, it has been made easy.
“You can use even your agriculture products, your moveable assets as collateral to access loans.
“You discover that those at the SMEs level, who do not have huge collateral requirements, can leverage on what they have and use it as collateral,’’ he said.
The executive secretary said that the agency was targeting no fewer than 6,120 cooperatives within the next one year to gain access to financial inclusion products.
He said that the CBN was working with CFAN and other partners to ensure that no one was left out in the financial inclusion strategy.
“At the financial inclusion strategy of the CBN, we have set of products covering savings, credits, pension, capital market products, insurance and others that when properly accessed, will make life comfortable for citizens.
“That is why CBN working with CFAN and other partners is ensuring that no one is left behind when it comes to the issue of financial inclusion,’’.
CFAN is the National Financial Apex for all registered Co-operative Societies that offer financial services to their members in Nigeria
