President Bola Tinubu said the National Credit Guarantee Company has helped unlock ₦46.95 billion in loans in its first year of operations, part of the government’s drive to broaden access to formal credit for households and small businesses.
The company, known as NCGC, issued ₦21.59 billion in loan guarantees that enabled participating lenders to provide financing to 67,512 borrowers in 25 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
President Tinubu disclosed this in a post on his official X account on Monday.
The figures suggest that every ₦1 in guarantees mobilised about ₦2.17 in credit, illustrating the government’s effort to use public risk-sharing arrangements to draw more private-sector lending into the economy.
President Tinubu, who has made expanding consumer and business credit a central part of his economic agenda, said the programme was intended to address a chronic constraint on Nigerian businesses: lenders’ reluctance to finance otherwise viable borrowers without substantial collateral or a verifiable borrowing record.
“Many viable businesses still meet the same obstacle at the bank,” Tinubu said.
“Lenders see too much risk in a sound business when the owner has little collateral or no credit history.”
The NCGC was established to assume part of the risk on qualifying loans made by participating financial institutions. The arrangement is designed to encourage banks and other lenders to extend credit to businesses and individuals that might otherwise be rejected under conventional lending standards.
The company is working through 19 financial institutions, comprising 13 commercial banks, three microfinance banks and three development-finance institutions, according to the president’s statement.
Under the scheme, lenders retain responsibility for assessing applicants, monitoring their facilities and recovering loans, while the NCGC bears an agreed portion of losses on qualifying credit.
The model is intended to reduce the collateral barrier that has kept many small businesses and prospective borrowers outside the formal financial system.
More than 22,000 beneficiaries – 33.5% of the borrowers reached, were first-time formal borrowers, according to the figures.
That gives them an entry point into the credit system, where timely repayment can establish a record that may improve their ability to obtain future financing.
President Tinubu linked the guarantee programme to a broader set of state-backed credit initiatives, including consumer lending through the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation, or CREDICORP; student loans offered through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, known as NELFUND; and business financing by the Bank of Industry and Development Bank of Nigeria.
The administration argues that broader credit access will allow households to spread the cost of essential purchases and enable enterprises to invest ahead of anticipated revenue.
In a country where many small firms rely on retained earnings, informal lenders or short-term trade credit, such financing can determine whether a business can add inventory, buy machinery or meet a larger order.
NCGC estimates that businesses supported through its guarantee programmes account for 661,291 direct and indirect jobs.
The estimate underscores the programme’s ambition, though its longer-term impact will depend on loan performance, defaults and whether borrowers can continue to obtain credit without comparable public support.
Women accounted for 11,374 of the 67,512 borrowers reached, or roughly 16.8% of beneficiaries.
The figure points to a continuing gender gap in access to formal finance, even as the credit-guarantee programme expands lending to borrowers who had previously been excluded from the banking system.
The NCGC began operations in July 2025 and has used both individual facility guarantees and portfolio guarantees, the latter allowing lenders to extend credit to groups of smaller borrowers more efficiently.
Its first-year results represent an early test of whether government-backed guarantees can materially expand private lending without the state becoming the direct financier of the economy.
President Tinubu cast the programme as evidence that the government’s economic reforms are beginning to translate into opportunities for households and businesses.
“We will keep widening that road until the opportunities our reforms create reach homes and businesses in every part of Nigeria,” he said.
