By Olawunmi Ashafa

The Managing Director of Bank of Industry (BoI), Dr Olasupo Olusi, says the bank has raised over $5 billion from the international capital markets through Eurobonds, loan syndications, and green finance instruments since 2017.

Olusi made this known on Thursday at the BoI’s 65th anniversary news conference in Lagos.

He highlighted the bank’s evolution from its establishment as the Investment Company of Nigeria (ICON) in 1959 to its transformation into the Bank of Industry in 2001.

Olusi noted that the bank also concluded global loan syndication that raised not less than two billion euros in November; the largest fundraising in BoI’s history and the largest syndication in the history of African DFls.

He explained that the bank was able to achieve the milestones through the years due to its partners.

According to him, BoI has established strategic partnerships with key local public and private institutions as well as global financial and multilateral institutions to enable the bank to fulfill its mandate, effectively.

“BoI has partnerships with state governments, and foundations to establish the ‘Matching Fund’ scheme.

“We also have partnerships with trade associations, such as the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), to deepen real sector financing.

“BoI recently signed a partnership agreement with SMEDAN to provide Nano and Micro Enterprises in Nigeria with a one billion dollar fund at a single digit interest rate.

“We have partnerships with several other public agencies like NCDMB, to support specific sectors,” he said.

Olusi added that the Federal Government, in November 2023, appointed the bank as the executing agency for the $200 billion FGN MSME Intervention Fund.

This included a N50 billion Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme (PCGS), a N75 billion Manufacturing Sector Fund, and a N75 billion MSME Intervention Sector Fund.

“Our strategic partnerships also extend to numerous organisations, such as African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Finance Corporation (AFC), Investment Climate Reform (ICR) initiative, and the African Guarantee Fund (AGF).

“Other are the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the United States Export Import Bank (USEXIM), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), amongst others,” Olusi said.

According to him, the bank, in the last 12 months, has also revised its strategy to focus on impact and introduced various strategic initiatives in alignment with President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ and in response to emerging macroeconomic issues.

Also, Mr Shekarau Omar, BoI’s Executive Director, MSMEs, revealed that the bank plans to disburse N120 billion to two million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) by the end of the year.

Omar said that, in spite of an initial target of disbursing N103 billion to 1.5 million MSMEs in 2024, the bank had already surpassed the goal.

According to him, as of October, the bank has disbursed N107 billion to a larger number of MSMEs than originally planned.

Omar highlighted the potentials of Nigeria’s MSME sector, saying it was estimated to be between 39 and 40 million businesses. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Kamal Tayo Oropo