Legal and Regulatory Considerations in promoting Factoring as an Alternative Trade Financing Tool in Nigeria

Abstract

The level of trade in Nigeria has been declining in recent years. This decline is attributable to the inaccessibility of trade finance particularly by Nigerian SMEs which are the principal contributors to economic activity in Nigeria. Factoring has been identified as a veritable tool for providing sustainable and accessible trade finance particularly for SMEs. Factoring is a financial service where an enterprise sells its accounts receivables (in the form of invoices) to a factor at a discount in return for immediate cash and a range of services including credit protection, accounts receivable bookkeeping and collection services. Despite the prospects factoring bears for improving trade financing in Nigeria, the awareness, availability and use of factoring as a trade financing product in Nigeria has remained very low. One key reason for the poor state of factoring in Nigeria is the absence of a robust and facilitative legal and regulatory framework for factoring in Nigeria. This research therefore analyses the legal and regulatory framework for factoring in Nigeria to assess the extent to which it facilitates and promotes the use and provision of factoring as an alternative trade financing tool in Nigeria. This paper commences by exploring the concept of factoring and examining the role of factoring as an alternative trade financing tool in Nigeria. This research analyses the legal and regulatory framework for factoring in Nigeria by examining the current framework and the proposed framework – the Nigerian Factoring Bill. This research goes further to comparatively analyze the legal and regulatory framework for factoring in Nigeria against modern best practices for factoring law and regulation to extract valuable lessons for Nigeria. Finally, this research proffers useful recommendations for improving and strengthening the Nigerian legal and regulatory framework for factoring in order to promote and facilitate the use and provision of factoring services in Nigeria.