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…confirms receipt of N3.9bn FG’s Social Intervention Fund
Bank of Industry (BoI) on Wednesday rolled out a three year plan to boost micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with the sum of N1 trillion by 2019.
Breakdown of the disbursement schedule showed that the sum of N250 billion is to be disbursed in 2017, N400 billion in 2018 and N500 billion in 2019.
Waheed Olagunju, BoI acting Managing Director who disclosed this during the 2016 budget appraisal and 2017 budget defence, hinted on the bank’s plan to sign-in more Commercial banks (N1 billion already signed with Ecobank) and microfinance banks for on-lending to MSMEs.
According to him, the sum of N10 billion has been earmarked for disbursement in 2017, adding that the bank has commenced disbursement of the Dangote Legacy Fund given at zero percent interest rate, to some State Governments at 5% interest rate for the development of mini-cluster parks.
Apart from Bayelsa and1 8 other state Governments which signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the bank as at last week, negotiation with Borno, Yobe, Jigawa and Adamawa is expected to be concluded soon.
While responding to questions on the Federal Government’s Social Intervention Fund domiciled with the bank, Olagunju disclosed that the sum of N3.9 billion was released in November 2016, out of total sum of N140 billion of the total sum of N500 billion proposed for Social Intervention Programme, due to low revenue generation and economic challenges facing the country.
According to him, the total operating cost for 2017 was put at N46.530 billion against N34.899 billion in 2016; profit before tax and impairment charges for 2017 was N26.760 billion against N20.210 billion while interest income for 2017 was put at N40.218 billon against N27.741 billion in 2016.
On the proposed re-capitalisation of the BoI and Bank of Agriculture (BoA) as announced by President Muhammadu Buhari during the budget presentation to the joint session of the National Assembly, Olagunju who could not ascertain the actual amount set aside for BoI, expressed optimism that at least N5 billion will be injected into the bank.
He also unveiled plans to revalidate the five year strategic plans adopted in 2014-2019 considering the micro-economic outlook of 2016, just as he reiterated the bank’s commitment to stay afloat despite the daunting economic challenges.
He observed that the cost of establishing industries are becoming more higher and triple than the intial cost, especially with the non-availability of foreign exchange, adding that some of the raw materials required by some of the industries supported by the bank were part of the 41 items banned by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“Availability of forex is not immediate and this has impacted on project financing even the raw materials used by most of the industries we support. Most of them are import dependent but we are encouraging them to reintegrate with something locally,” he said.
While scrutinising the budget presentation, the lawamkers requested for list of beneficiaries of the various facilities domiciled with including the Automotive Fund and SMEDAN fund, among others, with the view to determine the level of the bank’s exposure.
The lawmakers also requested for list of investments into securities, audited accounts of the bank, nominal roll and breakdown of the N34.8 billion operating cost for 2016.
