Bureau Development in Africa

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Bureau Development in Africa

• Presented by Gillian McMeekin
• XDS General Manager

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Who is XDS?(Strengths Experience)

• 100 Black owned Credit Bureau in SA
• Self driven, motivated and highly skilled people
  with many years of credit bureau experience
• Data integrity, accuracy and comprehensiveness
• Effective use of advanced technology
• Innovation and Flexibility
• Joint Venture Partnership with KPMG
• XDS Credit Bureau projects UK, USA, Spain,
  Holland, Italy, Middle East, Uganda, Kenya,
  Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, South Africa.

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Highlevel African Challenges

• Existing Environment
• (Economic and political factors, education and
  literacy)
• Infrastructure- access to information, systems
  and technology
• Consumer Consent
• Legislation Data Privacy Laws and Frameworks
  for data sharing
• Emerging Market data quality and history,
  matching techniques, no identity numbers

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Data Issues

• Prominent Problems -
• Unstructured and informal addresses
• Swapping of first name and surname
• Matching of consumers using data other than
  identity numbers, such as drivers licenses,
  voter registration, date of birth, first name,
  surname and addresses.
• Consumers with identical, similar names living in
  the same residential areas.
• Lack of historical credit data
• Allowing for business and consumer searches
• Initial and on going Collection of manual public
  domain records such as judgements.
• Scrubbing, validating and ensuring integrity of
  data received by the subscribers

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XDS Ghana Experience

• Challenges
• Cash Based Society
• Data Sharing
• Legislation
• Infrastructure

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XDS Ghana Bureau Development

• XDS entered market in 2003
• Education lobbying and speaking to the right
  people!
• The Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB) mandated
  XDSData to provide credit bureau services to all
  the banks in Ghana. XDSData then proceeded with
  all the banks in Ghana, collecting data
• Key focus Areas
• Signing of contractual agreements for data
  sharing
• Simultaneous establishment of a Data Sharing
  association
• Banks currently providing XDS with all sorts of
  data
• XDS responsibilities Data collection, hosting,
  effective security and confidentiality, right
  technology platforms, collection of public record
  information (bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax
  liens, and court judgments.)
• No Identity System therefore matching crucial,
  drivers licenses, addresses, etc

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GHANA Legislative Environment

• Ghana Credit Bureau BillFramework for the
  licensing, operation and the supervision of
  credit bureaus in Ghana, to establish the
  conditions for the formation, processing, storage
  and disclosure of credit information, and to
  provide for related matters.
• Bank of Ghana - Supervisory/ regulatory role/
  Licensing/Inspections and Audits
• Credit Bureau vs Debt Collection agency
• Banking Association/Data Submission
• Data Person natural person, artificial
  person but excludes the Government of Ghana

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GhanaToday

• Financial Sector Reforms -2005
• Includes The Foreign Exchange Bills and Cheque
  Bill, which will be tabled before Parliament in
  the course of the year.
• The Ministry of Finance in addition pursue the
  passage of regulatory laws such as Credit Bureau
  Law, Non-Bank Financial Institutions Law and
  Money Laundering/CFT Law to strengthen Payment
  Systems.
• Credit Bureau Bill prediction will be passed by
  end of 2006

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XDS in Nigeria

• Nigerian Environment
• No identity system
• No viable data sharing mechanisms
• One or two data companies but no viable and fully
  fledged credit bureau
• No data privacy legislation or frameworks in
  place for data sharing
• To date first reading of credit bureau bill
  taken place

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Roadmap to Establish an effective Credit
Environment in Nigeria
Roadmap to Facilitate    
an effective Credit Environment Participants Actions
     
1. Establish a Credit Bureau Association Relvant Key Stakeholders Regulatory Framework to
    govern credit bureaus
     
2. Establish a Data Sharing Association CRIMA other Regulatory Framework for
    Data Sharing
    Establish Code of Conduct
     
3. Create committee/ working group Credit Grantors Create Legislative framework
Lobby with government Bureaux for bureaux to operate
bureau to operate Government  
  other stakeholders  
     
4. Negative Data Sharing CCA Sharing of Default and Fraud
  Bureaux Data
 Positive Data Sharing    
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In Closing

• Work with Key stakeholders Banking
  associations, other stakeholders parliament and
  government
• Play an instrumental role in lobbying for a
  effective legislative environment
• Understand the consumer landscape (including
  partnering with local citizens)
• Understanding information constraints
• Understanding Infrastructure constraints
• Provide all the necessary skills and experience
• From the beginning look at matching techniques
  and alternative data sources within the country
• Persevere, persevere, persevere and prepare for
  the long haul

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Thanking you...

• For your time and your attention.