Tinubu says credit guarantee scheme unlocked ₦46.95bn in first year

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru, Abuja

President Bola Tinubu has said that 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 for every ₦1 in guarantees mobilised, about ₦2.17 in credit was drawn, illustrating the government’s effort to use public risk-sharing arrangements to draw more private-sector lending into the economy. 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.