The Bank of Industry, BoI, is shopping for about N1 trillion from local and international sources to finance the industrial component of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan. Waheed Olagunju, acting managing director of the bank, revealed this the 57th annual general meeting, AGM, of the bank in Abuja.
The Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP, which was launched last month in the blueprint of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to take the economy out of recession and ensure inclusive growth and sustainable development.
According to Olagunju, the N1 trillion would be used to support ventures that would fast-track the country’s realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals. He said this would enable the bank to increase its risk assets to N1.2 trillion by 2019.
Olagunju explained that the bank had commenced discussion with the Development Bank of Nigeria and some foreign as well as multilateral development finance institutions. He said one of the major targets of the bank was to ensure that the Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises, MSMEs, access up to 30 per cent of its total loan portfolio by 2019.
“The BoI has embarked on a N1tn fund mobilisation drive within and outside the country to part finance the industrial component of the ERGP. Under the plan, it is envisaged that enterprises financed by the BoI will generate more than five million jobs,” Olagunju said.
He added that both the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, had worked hard to make the bank more viable despite competing needs and financial constraints.
Giving a breakdown of the bank’s activities in the 2016 financial year, he said the volume of new loans rose by 10 per cent to N171 billion from N156 billion in 2015. He said that disbursements to SMEs similarly went up by 42 per cent within the same period to N8 billion from N5.64 billion.
BoI’s profit before tax stood at N17 billion in 2016, representing an increase of 44 per cent over the 2015 profit of N11.9 billion.
Okechukwu Enelamah,
minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, commended the bank for its achievements during the 2016 financial year.He said that BoI had also gained significant traction in the implementation of the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme being rolled out in all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.