Bank of Industry secures $5bn, earmarks N120bn for MSME support

Since 2017, the Bank of Industry, or BoI, has raised more than $5 billion from global capital markets through Eurobonds, loan syndications, and green finance instruments, according to Olasupo Olusi, Managing Director.

At the news conference for the BoI’s 65th anniversary in Lagos on Thursday, Mr. Olusi said this.

He emphasized how the bank changed from being founded in 1959 as the Investment Company of Nigeria, or ICON, to becoming the Bank of Industry in 2001.
According to Mr. Olusi, the bank also completed a global loan syndication in November that raised at least two billion euros, which is the biggest fundraising in BoI’s history as well as the largest syndication in African DFls’ history.

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

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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.
Mr. Olusi further mentioned that the bank was designated as the executing agency for the $200 billion FGN MSME Intervention Fund by the Federal Government in November 2023.

These comprised a N75 billion Manufacturing Sector Fund, a N75 billion MSME Intervention Sector Fund, a 50 billion Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme, and PCGS.

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“We also have strategic partnerships with many organizations, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Finance Corporation (AFC), the African Guarantee Fund (AGF), and the Investment Climate Reform (ICR) program.

Other organizations include the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the United States Export Import Bank (USEXIM), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), according to Olusi.

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.
By the end of the year, the bank intends to distribute N120 billion to two million micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs), according to Shekarau Omar, Executive Director, MSMEs at the Bank of India.

According to Mr. Omar, the bank has already exceeded its initial objective of N103 billion in 2024 disbursements to 1.5 million MSMEs.

He said that as of October, the bank has paid out N107 billion to more MSMEs than anticipated.

Mr. Omar emphasized the potential of Nigeria’s MSME sector, stating that there are an estimated 39 to 40 million enterprises in this area.