COVID-19 Targeted Credit Facility: The need for transparency, due process, monitoring, citizens’ obligation

The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the ravaging factors which recently have compounded with existing defects to further enmesh the Nigerian economy into the clusters of wobbling conditions. The state of the economy recently has seen businesses reduced to the fate of liquidation while several others, exposed to weakening risks, are grappling for breathe. The ravages of the pandemic have had debilitating impacts mostly on the estates of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the Country. The collision of the impacts of deficiencies, erupting from the economy has left nothing but sad narratives before Nigerians. Lamentations over the wobbling impacts have been tingling to the hearing as socio-economic conditions worsen for the masses. Deficits in employment records would not be readily far from sight by these shortfalls.

The winding up of small businesses has further deepened the narratives of unemployment rate in the Country, which the National Bureau of Statistics had in March pegged at 33.3per cent for the last quarter of 2020. It would not be surprising to hear of the worsening profile which updated statistics would present. Among others, the rate of inflation in the Country which for July, 2021 was pegged, on the basis of the Consumer Price Index to have increased by 17.38% (year-on-year), are indices of the worsening state of the economy. It is glaring that the negativities of all economic indicators have left unsavoury conditions where Nigerians have been reduced to daily lamentations.

As the masses continue to suffer unpalatable living conditions following the frailties of the economy, the call for intervention has become more reverberating, particularly as more businesses are exposed to the risk of winding up. The strain of the COVID-19 pandemic is known to have left unbecoming conditions under which small businesses are largely suffering under the huge risk threatening their survival. The call for special intervention has since become a resonating demand to salvage more fatigued businesses at the verge of closing up. The call for palliatives from the Government to sustain MSMEs however draws new concerns.

As the calls for government intervention continue to gather cloud, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had disclosed that it has received over eight million applications from Nigerians for its COVID-19 Targeted Credit Facility to help households and businesses. The Director, Corporate Communications Department of the apex bank, Mr Osita Nwanisiobi, had last Saturday while fielding questions from journalists in Enugu during a one-day interactive enlightenment session with the organised labour and civil society groups on the five-year policy thrust of the CBN, said that over 600,000 applicants had benefited from the various COVID-19-induced interventions so far. He was quoted, “We started with about N50bn. We moved to N100bn, to N300bn; today; we are talking about N400bn. Now, the number of applications that we have is over eight million applications and we have done over 600,000. Now, will people complain that they haven’t received it? The answer is yes; you see the number and then you see what we are doing.The reality is that we are not resting on our oars. The governor is actually very passionate because he has also seen that what we have done in this regard also help Nigerians exit recession and to post the kind of GDP that we have posted and so he is poised to do more.”

The need to employ the principle of transparency to the working processes of the entire intervention framework is important to keep Nigerians informed and updated about the scheme. It is essential to clear every benefit of doubt and uncertainty which may shroud the processes. More importantly, it is necessary to ensure due processes are followed to complement the workings of the intervention, such that would make the schemes relatively transparent and fair to eligible Nigerians. As several of such interventions are known, with past records, to be skewed with inconsistencies which largely defeat the purposes, it is instructive for the Bank to become more strategic in its approach to eliminate every iota of gaps which may be exploited for individualistic possibilities against popular interest.

Furthermore, the need to develop systems of tracking charts to determine the flow of  positivity, particularly on interventions for businesses is sacrosanct. This is pertinent to guide against the possibilities of diversions and misapplication of the loans. The need to nurture a strong system to ensure returns are accrued as a structure of repayment for the business loans without ado, becomes important. Hence, beyond giving loans to the businesses, enlightenment and capacity orientation for the eligible beneficiaries on the best management strategies to employ to salvage their businesses from distressed state unto the ravamped status of breaking even, is paramount. As such intervention in the past has seen loans given out becoming bad, it is essential for the apex Bank to establish an unbroken system, with virile linkage structures, which are strong enough to avoid breaches that may defeat the objectives and purposes of the intervention.

Hence, while it is therefore important for the relevant institutions of the Nigerian Government, the National Assembly and the echelons of the Federal Executive to exert force on monitoring strategies, it becomes an obligation for the civil society and the entire populace to take cognizance of the essential duty required to owe the system accountable in ensuring the purpose of the intervention is not defeated by systemic errors and conflicting interests.