Alex Achebe appointed Church of England credit champion to compete with loan sharks

CENTRAL Association of Nigerians in the UK (Canuk) first vice chairman Chief Alex Achebe has been appointed as one of the Church of England's credit champions by the Archbishop of Canterbury under ambitious plans to fight poverty and combat loan sharks.

 

Under the humanitarian programme launched by the archbishop Rt Reverend Justin Welby, the Church of England is at the forefront of a generational change in attitudes towards money and debt. At a special evensong in east London to commission 50 credit champions, Archbishop Welby said money could be a slave master of the utmost cruelty without grace and guidance, so the church's credit union was imperative.

 

Those commissioned at the event were parishioners trained to lead the Church of England’s charge against loan-sharks through the use of affordable credit through credit unions. Their commissioning at St George-in-the-East Church in, Shadwell, marks a new phase in the financial-services scheme being rolled out by the Church Credit Champions Network (CCCN).

 

Archbishop Welby said: “The people on the edge always suffer the most. They turn to payday lenders for an extra few pounds a month that accumulates debts of thousands, and brings them to the edge of despair but we know that is wrong.”

 

His CCCN network, which is run by the Centre for Theology and Community and the Church Urban Fund, was launched in May 2014 with pilots in the dioceses of Southwark, Liverpool and London. It was formed in response to Archbishop Welby’s promise to compete payday loan providers, such as Wonga, out of existence.

 

His comments sparked the Church of England-backed initiative #ToYourCredit, which resulted in the formation of the Churches Mutual Credit Union. So far, the scheme has trained 150 credit champions to give information and advice to people struggling with debt.

 

More than 200 churches have been involved, and a target of 3,000 new credit-union members is close to being achieved. Their plan is now to roll out the scheme to another 27 dioceses, which will bring in thousands more churches over the next two years and an estimated 6000 credit champions are expected to be trained.

 

According to Chief Achebe, the scheme has the potential to reach 2.5m people when fully operational. CCCN believes that this activity will generate a social return of around £7.50 for every £1 invested in the programme, largely through reduced interest payments as people use low-cost credit unions rather than payday and other high-interest companies.

 

In February last year, Archbishop Welby appointed the former chief executive of the Financial Services Authority, Sir Hector Sants, to lead the church’s task force on credit unions. Sir Hector has in turn called on the wealthy to lend to credit unions and co-operatives in order to raise their profile.

 

CCCN coordinator, Tom Newbold, described challenging injustice as a biblical and missional imperative. He added that the scale and locality of churches across the UK enables a momentous opportunity for change to the financial system and the lives of many individuals.