Questions about credit reports, ratings and membership

NCI is an independent credit bureau for Somalia. Banks, microfinance institutions and other licensed lenders join it as members, report how their loans are repaid, and ask it about an applicant before they lend. It is not part of any bank or lender, and it does not lend.

A credit bureau, also called a credit reference bureau or a credit information bureau, keeps a record of how people have repaid their loans and gives lenders a credit report on an applicant before they decide. It gives information, not decisions.

Only the member you applied to for credit, for that application. The other members are told who you are, so that they can look you up in their own books, but they are not told which member is asking and they never see the report. No one else sees it unless the law requires it, for example a court order.

No. A member may ask NCI about you only when you have applied to it for credit and signed your consent or, for a loan it granted before it joined NCI, signed a registry consent. Asking for any other reason, such as marketing, employment screening or curiosity, is not permitted.

From how your loans have been repaid, and how late any late payment was. The rating is a score out of 100 and one of fifteen grades, from A+ to E−, with its reasons in plain words. Below 50 is the red zone, kept for a debt in default.

No. Someone who has never borrowed is not rated, and no one is rated before a first payment is made on a first loan. The report says why, and the lender decides on the application itself.

An enquiry on you is shown to members for 2 years. Your rating measures repayment over the last 2 years, and a debt written off counts in it for 7 years.

Ask the member that reported it, at any of its branches. The member checks it against its own books and, when it is wrong, corrects it within 10 business days. Every correction is logged.

No. NCI never approves or refuses a loan. The report and the rating inform the lender's decision; the lender decides, on its own checks.

No. NCI is a credit bureau, not a bank or a lender, and it does not lend. To borrow, apply to a bank, a microfinance institution or another licensed lender.

Any licensed institution that extends credit in Somalia: banks, microfinance institutions, savings and credit cooperatives, mobile-money and digital lenders, leasing and hire-purchase companies, suppliers offering trade credit, and other licensed lenders.

Send the application for membership on this website. It creates no account: NCI contacts the person you name. NCI reviews each application, and an institution becomes a member when it signs the participation agreement and its administrator's account is opened.

A member reports each of its live loans every month, and answers NCI's questions about applicants from its own books. When someone applies to it for credit, it can ask NCI about them and receives one credit report, with a credit rating and its reasons when the person has a loan record. Members are never named to one another.

Pricing is given on request. In the contact form, choose Request pricing as what your message is about.