- Liberia has launched an upgraded digital registry that will allow lenders to verify ownership and existing claims against assets before accepting them as collateral, a reform intended to reduce lending risks and expand credit to small businesses.
The Enhanced Collateral Registry System, launched Thursday at the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Ministerial Complex in Monrovia, provides a unified platform for registering and searching security interests in movable and immovable property.
The publicly searchable system operates around the clock and allows financial institutions to register, amend, transfer, and discharge claims against assets electronically.
Central Bank of Liberia Executive Governor Henry F. Saamoi said the registry addresses a longstanding obstacle to private-sector growth: the difficulty entrepreneurs face in using their assets to obtain financing.
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"A few years ago, a Liberian entrepreneur with a promising business idea walked into a financial institution seeking a loan," Saamoi said, describing a business owner who possessed land, equipment and contracts but could not effectively convert those assets into financing.
"Today, we are gathered here to change that story," he said.
The system is designed to connect with databases maintained by the National Identification Registry, Liberia Land Authority, Liberia Business Registry and vehicle-registration authorities.
Saamoi said those connections will help lenders verify borrowers' identities, ownership of assets and whether property offered as collateral is already subject to another claim.
The registry is also expected to reduce cases in which borrowers use the same document or asset to secure loans from multiple financial institutions.
Building on 2014 Registry
The enhanced platform builds on Liberia's secured-transactions reforms, including the Commercial Code, the establishment of the Commercial Court and the country's original Collateral Registry, which became operational in 2014 with support from the International Finance Corporation and World Bank Group.
The new system is intended to widen the range of property lenders may consider as collateral, particularly for businesses that do not own land or buildings traditionally required to secure loans.
World Bank Country Manager Georgia Wallen said limited access to finance remains one of the most significant constraints facing Liberian businesses.
She said many entrepreneurs own equipment and other productive assets but have struggled to use them to obtain credit.
"The enhanced Collateral Registry System helps to bridge this gap," Wallen said, adding that reliable information about assets would give lenders greater confidence to accept a wider range of collateral.
Wallen announced that the Central Bank, Banking Institute of Liberia and IFC are preparing specialized training on movable and immovable asset financing. The training is expected to begin during the first week of September.
A nationwide public-awareness campaign on secured transactions and use of the registry is also planned.
Banks Welcome Verification Tool
Liberia Bankers Association President Olalekan Balogun, who is also managing director and CEO of Bloom Bank, described the registry as a tool the industry "needs dearly."
Balogun said banks have long encountered cases in which the same asset or ownership document was presented as collateral at multiple institutions.
He urged banks to incorporate the platform into their credit assessments and risk-management procedures instead of treating it merely as a regulatory requirement.
According to Balogun, greater certainty over ownership and existing claims could reduce credit losses and nonperforming loans while giving banks more confidence to expand lending.
Commercial Court Chief Judge Eva Mappy Morgan said clearly identifying collateral could also make it easier for courts to enforce judgments involving unpaid loans.
Morgan said poorly defined or difficult-to-locate collateral complicates Liberia's already lengthy judgment-enforcement process and can prevent lenders from recovering money from defaulting borrowers.
A stronger registry, she said, could support the banking sector and improve confidence in both the lending system and the courts.
Focus on Small Businesses
Deputy Commerce Minister for Commerce and Trade Wilmot A. Reeves said the reform could particularly benefit micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, women, young entrepreneurs and businesses outside Monrovia.
He said the registry complements other reforms under the Liberia Investment, Finance and Trade Project, including online business registration, the Trade Information Portal, an upgrade of ASYCUDA World and the development of a national electronic single window.
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Reeves said women account for about 60% of beneficiaries under the project's sustainable credit facility.
Officials from the Liberia Business Registry also urged financial institutions to verify documents before accepting them as collateral, warning that some documents presented as official business-registration records could not be found in the registry's database.
They said stronger verification of business ownership would also help prevent money laundering and other illegal financial transactions.
Saamoi said the Collateral Registry is part of the Central Bank's wider effort to modernize Liberia's financial system, alongside reforms to the Credit Reference System and national electronic-payment infrastructure.
He said the registry's success should ultimately be measured by the businesses it helps expand, the investments it facilitates and the jobs it creates.
"Today, we launch an enhanced system. Tomorrow, we unlock finance," Saamoi said. "Finance unlocks enterprise. Enterprise unlocks jobs. And jobs unlock hope."
