The Equipment Leasing Association of Nigeria (ELAN) wants the Federal Government to support the industry by engendering a more favourable operating environment.
One way it wants this done is strengthening and sustaining capacity in the industry to enable it perform its developmental role effectively by easing the funding challenge.
This, ELAN believes the Federal Government can do by allowing leasing companies in the country to access pension and other intervention funds to develop specific sectors of the economy.
This, according to a statement by the association, “will no doubt enhance the capacity of lessors to deepen lease penetration in the market and will in the long run promote investments, create wealth and more jobs.”
ELAN says it also looks forward to the faithful implementation of the Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2018– 2020, expressing belief that such would ultimately create enormous market for the leasing business. A whole range of
Equipment, it said, would definitely be required across the entire value chain of priority sectors including agriculture, mining, manufacturing, among others.
Noting the bright future of leasing in Nigeria, the association however emphasised the need for good will among all stakeholders in the industry to work together to build a virile industry that would contribute more to capital formation in the Nigerian economy.
According to the statement, Nigeria’s leasing sector recorded a 14.5% growth in 2017 at N1.445tr, up from N1.255tr in prior year, helped by oil and gas, which contributed a huge N449bn or 28% to the year’s volume total portfolio; transportation followed with N355bn, or 20%; followed by manufacturing, which rose to N217bn from N180bn in 2016.
The 2017 growth was marginally better than the 14% of previous year and a far-cry from the 27% growth recorded in 2015.
Data by the association shows that the 2017 growth was significantly better than the 11% in 2013, or 8.0% of 2012; just as the highest growth in the 10 years since 2007 was the 42% growth recorded in 2008; followed from afar by the preceding year’s 29%; and 28% in 2009, with 21% of 2010, when total leasing value stood at N537.907bn, coming behind the 2015 level.
Also, in 2017, leasing activities in agriculture, government, telecommunications and other sectors (education, healthcare, construction and consumer sectors) recorded considerable growth, with finance lease remaining the predominant type of leases and accounting for 65% of the transactions.