Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Katsina State government have set up a N2 billion enterprise development fund for the provision of financial assistance to indigenous entrepreneurs in the state.
The financing deal, which was consolidated on Wednesday, came just as the Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari commissioned the bank’s state office.
Apart from the opening of the state office and signing of the matching-fund deal, the bank also participated in the just concluded Katsina State Economic and Investment summit declared opened by President Mohammadu Buhari.
Waheed Olagunju, BoI acting managing director, while speaking during the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between both parties, put the bank’s loan exposure to the state’s industrialists at N11.4 billion.
He noted that the financing model of fund matching with states had become imperative if the bank must meet its financial obligations to the nation’s numerous industrialists.
Unveiling the content of the agreement, Olagunju said the Katsina State government would provide N1 billion, which would in turn be matched in equal sum by the bank for onward lending to Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises in the state with bankable business plans.
He said: “The BoI decided to open its Katsina State office so as to sustain the institution’s continued efforts at serving Katsina State better and vastly improve on the turnaround time (TAT) for processing transactions.
“Katsina State is very central to BoI’s strategy of ensuring that our development finance services are brought closer to the people of the state, especially in our bid to vastly improve our service delivery efficiency, while also reaching out to all parts of the entire North West region.”
While expressing the commitment of the bank to support the newly unveiled economic and investment blueprint of the state, Olagunju disclosed that the development finance institution had so far provided loans in excess of N11.4 billion to over 40 micro, small, medium and large enterprises across the state with over 30,000 direct and indirect jobs created.
According to him, as part of its bid to deepen its credit delivery process, the bank has introduced product programs that are targeted at funding projects in the 40 identified business clusters in the country.
As one of the major beneficiaries of the programmes, he added that the bank’s state office had identified 10 clusters in Katsina State that would be accorded priority financial support.
Some of the priority areas, according to him, include cotton ginning, animal feeds/production, food processing, meat processing, solar (off grid), quarries diary, ceramics and tiles and technical and vocational skills.
Reacting, Governor Masari expressed the commitment of his administration to promoting industries, particularly small-scale enterprises.
In demonstration of his commitment to eradicating poverty among the people, he directed BoI to ensure that 80 percent of the loan sum be disbursed to youth and women groups.
The governor called on all stakeholders to support his developmental initiatives with a view to making the state the economic hub of North-West states.
