- BoI Gave Industrialists N112bn Loans in 2017 – Report
A total loan of N112.5bn was provided by the Bank of Industry to finance the industrial sector of the economy in the 2017 financial period.
The Chairman, BoI, Aliyu Dikko, gave the figure in a presentation made at the 58th Annual General Meeting of the bank held in Abuja on Thursday.
He said despite the challenging operating environment, the lender recorded huge improvement in its financial performance.
For instance, Dikko stated that the total assets improved by 4.5 per cent from 682bn to 713bn between 2016 and 2017, while the group’s total equity also rose to 241bn in 2017 from 219bn in the previous year.
Similarly, he said profit before tax also increased to 26.3bn from 16.9bn in the period under review, representing a growth of 55.6 per cent.
Dikko said, “The bank’s disbursement profile in the year also improved significantly to 112.5bn from 65.9bn that was achieved the previous year.
“Lending to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises also increased significantly to 29.5bn when compared to 8.2bn in 2016.”
Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director, BoI, Mr. Olukayode Pitan, stated that the bank doubled its loan disbursement rate to the industrial sector.
When asked for the loan repayment rate in view of the huge non-performing loan portfolio in the banking sector, he said the BoI had one of the least NPL ratio in the industry.
Pitan stated, “In the last one year, we doubled the amount of loans we gave out to small and medium enterprises. We also basically intervened in a lot of industries and they benefitted from the loans of the BoI in the last one year and we have given out over N100bn in loans.
“The repayment of our loans is very good. If you look at our annual report, you will see that our non-performing loans are less than five per cent and there are many reasons responsible for that.
“We give out loans that are secured by bank guarantees. In the SMEs space, their repayment has been good and we are working very closely with the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance to ensure that we put something in place that can be like a guarantee so that we can reduce the risks in that space and make more banks to lend.”
He described the outlook for 2018 as very positive, noting that the bank was ready to give out more loans to boost the industrial sector of the economy.
