Collateral registry to ease access to finance

Department of the Registrar General says the coming in of the web-based collateral registry will help ease access to finance among Malawians.

Registrar General Chapusa Phiri was speaking in Blantyre on Wednesday when he opened a media workshop on the prelaunch of the Malawi Business Registration System and collateral registries.

The online business licencing system and collateral registries are expected to be launched in early December. Phiri said the launch of the collateral registry aims to increase the availability of credit to consumers and small businesses through a robust and secure lending frame work which will see banks accepting movable assets as collateral.

“In Malawi, as in many other countries, financial institutions traditionally prefer fixed assets such as land or buildings as collateral for loans.

“Without such collateral, many individuals and small-scale companies cannot get financing they require investing for their businesses to grow and prosper.

The collateral registry, therefore, is an alternative avenue for small and medium enterprises to secure loans with movable property as collateral,” said Phiri.

He described the online business licensing regime and collateral registry as far reaching reforms which will go a long way in easing the business environment in Malawi.

Phiri said the reforms are a positive sign of government’s commitment to create an enabling environment for the private sector to do business.

Malawi is ranked on position 141 out of 189 economies on the 2016 World Bank Doing Business Index released by the Brettonwoods institution early this month.

Government has indicated its optimism to take Malawi into the top 100 rank in 2017.