The Bank of Industry disbursed N234bn to 10,145 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in 2019.
Disclosing this at the bank’s 60th Annual General Meeting that held virtually, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Aliyu Dikko, said, “I am also pleased to report that the group’s balance sheet remains strong while our business operations are in line with both regulatory requirements and global best practices.”
Presenting the annual results, Dikko said the bank’s total equity grew by 13.5 per cent to N293.09bn from N258.24bn in 2018, while total assets declined by 2.7 per cent to N1.04tn.
Profit Before Tax was reported to have increased by 7.3 per cent to N39.34bn year-on-year against the N36.66bn recorded in 2018, while the bank recorded a 16.7 per cent growth in loans and advances from N634.11bn in 2018 to N740.03bn in 2019.
“In the course of the year, we made significant progress towards improving the size of our loanable funds, leveraging our strategic partnerships in the international market and the support of the Central Bank of Nigeria,” Dikko said.
“The bank was able to raise €1bn through syndication by international banks for on-lending to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to create jobs.”
He assured that the bank would continue to provide financial and non-financial support to local companies to help them improve operational efficiency to compete effectively and take advantage of the anticipated improved demand when the African Continental Free Trade Area kicks off.
In his remarks, BOI Managing Director, Kayode Pitan, said the year under review was significant for the bank.
“As a bank, we have survived 60 years and by God’s grace, we have done very well. The balance sheet, after 60 years, is now slightly over N1tn and the profit for last year was very good,” Pitan said, adding that the bank introduced a number of initiatives to help cushion the effect of the Coronavirus Disease.
Listing the initiatives introduced, Pitan said BOI reduced interest on its direct line of credit by two per cent for one year from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021; granted a three-month moratorium on principal repayment to all beneficiaries of the BOI Fund from April 1, 2020 to June 31, 2020; with the option to extend it by up to 12 months for customers with proper justification on a case by case basis.
For loans issued under the CBN intervention programme and in line with the apex bank’s directive, he said BOI reviewed interest rate downwards to five per cent per annum, with a three-month moratorium.
Pitan said the bank also worked with the Nigerian Content Development Management Board to reduce interest rates on credit facilities approved under the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund from eight per cent per annum to six per cent.
