Daily Watch – Debt servicing costs go up, SME financing gap hits ₦48tr

The National Association of Securities Dealers has put the total amount of transactions performed within the company in 2018 at ₦25 billion, a 106.6% increase over the ₦12.1 billion transaction value in 2017. Through the NASD Enterprise Portal (NASDEP) launched in April 2018, the company recorded huge capital coming into the country in form of long-term investments, rather than trading capital, MD/CEO of NASD, Bola Ajomale, said. The NASDEP is designed to address the information gap on start-ups and other growth enterprises and also provides a central database of private investment opportunities and investor pools.

Data obtained from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria spent a total of ₦5.468 trillion ($15.147 billion) servicing domestic and foreign debt between July 2015 and September 2018. An analysis of the data shows that domestic debt servicing gulped a total of ₦4.77 trillion within the period while the country spent a total of $2.28 billion to service foreign debt. In 2015, a total of ₦1.02 billion was spent on servicing domestic debt. Of this amount, ₦528.54 billion was spent in the first half of the year while a total of ₦489.59 billion was spent in the second part of the year. From January to December 2016, the country spent a total of ₦1.23 trillion on domestic debt servicing while in 2017, the cost of servicing domestic debt rose to ₦1.48 trillion. The most current data from the DMO shows that the cost of servicing local debt for the first three quarters of 2018 stood at ₦1.57 trillion.

The FIRS is set to sell the properties of 52 companies whose tax debts amount to ₦3.4 billion. The Legal Department of the Service has started the process to sell the properties in a bid to effectively implement the initiative. Ten more companies are being profiled and investigated over tax evasion, while enforcement action is expected to be carried out on another 10 companies in Lagos with a total tax value of ₦727.42 million. An FIRS’ investigation revealed the some private organisations that own properties in Nigeria had not been paying any form of taxes. Following this discovery, the agency took a review of all properties that were under corporate ownership. Last Week, the FIRS revealed its plans to collaborate with the police and other stakeholders to ensure tax compliance becomes effective among Nigerian populace. The chairman also said the FIRS is going after no fewer than 85,000 millionaires in 2019 over tax defaults.

The CBN has put the existing financing gap in the small business segment of the economy at $158 billion (₦48 trillion). CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, announced this while opening a workshop for judicial officers on the Secured Transaction in Movable Assets (STMA) Act to acquaint them with the workings of collateral registry. The more than 17.5 million MSMEs adjudged vulnerable today, remain the catalyst of the country’s economic growth, but are faced with the most commonly cited challenge of financing bottlenecks. Emefiele noted that their situation is compounded by the lack of acceptable collateral, inherent information asymmetries among others, He said the ₦48 trillion shortfall was a reflection of the risk-driven apathy of financial institutions to lend to the sub-sector, adding that the statistics bring to the fore the urgent need for stakeholders to synergise, support and promote the development of MSMEs through improved access to affordable finance. According to regulator, the quest for inclusive economic growth and development would remain elusive if the ease of access to finance by this key industry is not given prominence, as its dilemma was already translating to weaker results.