The Bank of Industry (BOI) has revealed that it disbursed a total of N213.63 billion to 30,406 businesses in Nigeria in the 2021 financial year.
The Managing Director of BOI, Olukayode Pitan disclosed this at the 62nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank on Thursday in Abuja. He said that the bank was able to successfully scale up its developmental impacts in 2021 despite the challenges and limitations caused by COVID-19.
Pitan said “at the peak of COVID-19 in 2020, the bank took steps to support customers with a two per cent reduction in interest rates for a year alongside an extension of loan tenors and moratoriums. He said that the operating environment improved in 2021 and that is the reason they have decided to extend the incentives until March 31, 2022.”
He added that all ongoing projects were reviewed to assess emerging risks and opportunities and also additional support was provided.
“In the year under review, the bank disbursed a total of N213.63 billion to 30,406 Nigerian enterprises through both direct and indirect methods. This represents a 47.3 per cent increase over disbursements in 2020.
“The 2021 disbursements include N2.99billion to 22,120 farmers through our smallholder farmers on lending product and one billion Naira to 4,000 micro-retailers through our MSMEs distributor finance programme.
“At BoI, we have since taken measures to ensure that our systems, processes and people are continuously equipped to meet the evolving business environment.
“Today, we are a more agile and adaptive institution, able to provide the necessary developmental support for Nigeria’s real sector in an ever-changing economy.
“Our commitment to building a resilient organisation that can respond to the needs of our customers and operating challenges is unwavering.
“We strongly believe that we can achieve this with the continuous support of the stakeholders.” he further said.
