We’ll support South-West economy – BoI

The Bank of Industry on Thursday opened a regional office in Ibadan as part of its efforts to support economic growth in the South-West and interact more with investors in the Small and Medium Enterprises.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, said during the ceremony that Oyo State was chosen because of its strategic location in the bank’s plan to bring development finance services closer to the people.
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He said the bank had committed over N18bn to economic activities in the state and the region, stressing the importance of the SMEs in the growth of the nation’s economy.

Olaoluwa said, “Apart from supporting the power and aviation industries in Nigeria, we view manufacturing as a key area of investment and that is why we have also supported agro-processing of farm produce. We have strong partnership with the agriculture ministry at the federal level, where we manage intervention funds on its behalf.

“For the Small and Medium Enterprises, we started by implementing deliberate strategy to increase our impact in that area in 2014. We now have a directorate that focuses only on the SMEs. We appointed 122 business development service providers last year meant to work with the SMEs in repackaging their business. We realise that the SMEs problem is not only finance but also technical ability to write good proposal.”

He also highlighted the bank’s loan structure and funding to various investors in the state, stressing that an agreement with the state government worth N1bn substited.

“We have been promoting industrialisation in Oyo State and as of March 31, this year, we had provided loans in excess of N10bn to over 80 companies and micro enterprises spread across the state. We have also offered over N18bn loans to companies in the South-West excluding Lagos. We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the state in 2012, which culminated in the establishment of the Oyo State Government/Bank of Industry Micro Small and Medium Enterprises Matching Fund Scheme with N1bn committed to it.”

The BOI boss also said an additional N375m loan had been approved for disbursement by the management of the bank and a total of N225m was disbursed.

Another set of the loan beneficiaries received their cheques during the South-West Customer Forum that was held at the Kakanfo Inn and Conference Centre, Ibadan, after the opening ceremony.