Wigwe: Nigeria’s loan industry will be affected by coronavirus outbreak

Herbert Wigwe, the chief executive officer of Access Bank Plc, says consumer loans in Nigeria will be affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Wigwe told Bloomberg on Tuesday that the impact will be felt because markets converge.

“Coronavirus and its knockoff effect on crude oil is a big issue. China is the largest consumer of oil and with China on lockdown, it must affect our reserves,” he said.

“As far as human intervention, we had the luck of preparing before we recorded the first case.

“The nature of consumer loans is typically pay-day tied so they are tied to payrolls. That is not feeling the strain just yet.

“We also have that which is tied to small scale businesses which borrow on a day to day basis so we have not felt the impact just yet. Will it happen? Yes, because all the markets converge as one but what is important is that we have priced those loans to reflect all of that so we are in a good place.”

Wigwe said the bank is working towards expanding its operations to 22 countries from the present eight countries where it operates.

Speaking on the choice of countries to expand to, the Access bank boss said the bank is considering major trade corridors in the continent.

“We are looking at the major trade corridors in the continent and it’s going to be over a period of five years. The whole idea is that we become Africa’s gateway to the world.

“Today, we have 45 million bank accounts with 40 million unique customers. I imagine that by 2023, we will have 120 million customers across the continent with 100 million in Nigeria which is the largest market by far.”

He said Angola is one of the countries currently being considered.