.Says ladies account for 42.7% of twenty-two,616 Nigerians accessing financial institution loans for first time
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
The National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC) has disclosed that it has facilitated N64.13 billion in loans to Nigerian companies and people, in addition to supporting about 914,791 direct and oblique jobs in its lower than one and half years of operation.
NCGC’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Bonaventure Okhaimo, who made this recognized on Tuesday at a media parley on the State House, Abuja, additionally acknowledged that 22,616 Nigerians who had by no means have entry to formal financial institution credit score have secured loans via its intervention, with ladies accounting for 42.7 per cent of such beneficiaries.
Okhaimo added that the corporate had additionally deployed N30.19 billion in credit score ensures to unlock the N64.13 billion in loans as at October 21, 2026.
He mentioned the intervention inside 14 months of its operation had enabled collaborating monetary establishments to increase loans to beforehand excluded companies and people, notably these unable to fulfill standard collateral necessities.
The initiative, Okhaimo defined, has already reached greater than 170,000 beneficiaries via 19 collaborating monetary establishments, together with business and microfinance banks.
“For every one naira that we give as a credit guarantee to a bank, it creates two naira in loans. That’s the additionality”, the CEO acknowledged.
The CEOs careworn that President Tinubu established the corporate to handle a basic weak spot in Nigeria’s monetary system, the place in any other case viable companies have been routinely denied credit score as a result of they lacked acceptable collateral.
His phrases: “The President has said, don’t let a viable Nigerian business suffer because it doesn’t have collateral. He has taken the collateral and given it to the bank. So that’s what we are doing”.
Okhaimo additionally defined that NCGC doesn’t lend on to companies or people however supplies ensures that encourage monetary establishments to increase credit score to debtors they might ordinarily think about too dangerous.
According to him, the corporate at the moment assumes as much as 60 per cent of the credit score threat on eligible loans, permitting lenders to chill out collateral necessities whereas retaining duty for credit score evaluation, mortgage monitoring and restoration.
Some banks, he acknowledged, historically demand collateral value greater than 150 per cent of the quantity being borrowed, a apply that excludes many small companies regardless of their business viability.
“What we are saying is, forget about collateral. Do the other due diligence. As long as the customer’s business is viable and the customer has good character, we are willing to support by giving you a credit guarantee that will enable you to give loans to your customers”, he acknowledged.
The NCGC boss additionally disclosed that the corporate’s interventions had supported 914,791 jobs, comprising direct employment reported by collaborating banks and oblique employment estimated via recognised improvement finance multipliers.
The oblique employment calculations, he emphasised, have been primarily based on sector-specific multipliers, together with these utilized by the African Development Bank, with NCGC attributing employment influence in line with its share of assured credit score threat.
Okhaimo described the inclusion of twenty-two,616 first-time debtors within the formal monetary system as notably vital, noting that many beforehand depended fully on relations, buddies and casual financing preparations.
He additionally disclosed that 7,731 younger Nigerians had benefited from assured loans however expressed dissatisfaction with the comparatively low degree of youth participation.
The CEO mentioned the corporate was growing methods to extend the proportion of younger beneficiaries to at the very least 40 per cent, contemplating the nation’s predominantly youthful inhabitants.
“We need to encourage them. We need to engage them. We need to do much more around youth empowerment”.
On the corporate’s women-focused interventions, Okhaimo introduced plans to unlock greater than N100 billion in financing for over 20,000 women-owned enterprises inside 5 years via its GuaranteeHer initiative.
The scheme, launched on July 29, 2026, and formally unveiled to monetary establishments in Lagos on September 3, raises credit score assure protection to 70 per cent for eligible women-owned companies, in contrast with the usual 60 per cent.
He mentioned the framework, which supplies ensures for loans of as much as N50 million per borrower, was designed to strengthen present women-focused lending programmes operated by monetary establishments.
On the excessive rates of interest charged by business banks regardless of authorities credit score ensures, Okhaimo acknowledged that entry to finance and affordability remained two separate challenges.
He defined that NCGC was primarily established to enhance entry, though its risk-sharing mannequin might progressively cut back borrowing prices.
According to him, banks decide lending charges by contemplating the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Rate, inflation, funding prices and extra premiums reflecting the perceived dangers related to particular person debtors.
He mentioned the credit score assure intervention particularly focused the danger premium, doubtlessly permitting banks to scale back rates of interest as their publicity to potential losses declined.
“We don’t determine the interest rate because we are not the ones lending to you. We are incentivising the banks to lend from their own balance sheets”.
He added that NCGC was working with the Central Bank to discover regulatory capital reduction for loans backed by eligible ensures, a measure that would additional encourage decrease lending charges.
Okhaimo additionally careworn that credit score ensures weren’t grants or free cash, insisting that beneficiaries should function viable companies and meet their reimbursement obligations.
He additionally confirmed that agriculture remained a serious beneficiary of the scheme, noting that early interventions involving agricultural aggregators had enabled quite a few smallholder farmers in North-Central Nigeria to safe formal loans for the primary time.
On the corporate’s institutional construction, Okhaimo defined that NCGC was established on May 29, 2025, with an preliminary capitalisation of N100 billion, contributed equally by 4 federal establishments.
He recognized the shareholders because the Bank of Industry, Ministry of Finance Incorporated, Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority and Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation, every holding 25 per cent.
NCGC, the CEO mentioned, obtained its licence from the Central Bank on August 9, 2025, and operates underneath the financial institution’s regulatory supervision, alongside oversight by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
According to him, the corporate’s capital base supplies substantial alternatives to develop credit score ensures and mobilise extra lending in help of President Tinubu’s ambition to construct a trillion-dollar economic system by 2030.
