ICA President Advocates Quick Payment Policy for MSMEs

Eromosele Abiodun

The President of the Institute for Credit Administration (ICA) of Nigeria, Dr. Adetunji Oyebanji, has called for a deliberate policy thrust to ensure quick payment of confirmed invoices from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

In a welcome address at the institute’s annual mandatory professional development credit management conference, Oyebanji who is also the Chairman and Managing Director of Mobil Nigeria Plc, noted that subjecting MSMEs to long delays in making payments to them could be injurious to their businesses as the sector is fragile, having no easy access to fund due to lack of collateral.

He appealed to government at all levels and big companies to initiate policies that could lift up SMEs to critical business activities, stressing that such policy trust is the key to bolstering business activities in the economy.
“We call on conglomerates and blue chips in Nigeria to design policies that ensure quick payment of confirmed invoices from small and medium enterprises. Subjecting them to long delays in making payments to them could be injurious to their businesses as SMEs are fragile, having no easy access to fund due to lack of collateral.
While declaring open the institute’s “National Pay Your Bill Campaign,” Oyebanji stated that the campaign would be directed at those indebted to one another, institutional, national or international debt obligations to make good their debt obligations or promises.

“We enjoin all stakeholders to lend their voices to this clarion call. The month of April every year is taken by our institute as “National Pay Your Bill Month,” Oyebanji said.

Throwing more light on the initiative, ICA Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Professor Chris Analo, said: “What this means is that everybody will be reminded that you are indebted to one person, business to business, individual to individual, government to corporate organisation and corporate organizations to government, government to government.

“It is a symbolic activity reminding everyone that you are obligated to pay something, money, credit, invoice, etc which you are owing the next person. It could be consumer credit; it could be a worker indebted to a land lord or land lady, or mama put, whoever is indebted to somebody else.

“And the way I am looking at it, that month will produce billions of money paid back to the rightful owners. It may not be all you are indebted to but you make conscious effort to pay something that day,” Analo said.
The theme of the conference lecture which is “Using Credit to Tame Corruption- Role of Credit Managers,” brought together professional credit managers and experts from different sectors of the economy in a healthy dialogue on how to tame corruption by enthroning credit system in place of cash system which participants said breeds corruption.

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