Over 96 percent of loans issued by the Bank of Industry have been performing, the Acting Managing Director of the bank, Waheed Olagunju, has said.

Speaking at the House of Representatives panel on the operations of the Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), he said the bank’s interest on loan has been a single digit unlike the commercial banks, adding that “DFIs are policy-based institutions set up to intervene in the markets.

“DFIs grant long-term concessional loans. The interest rates are usually below market rates. At BoI, our SMEs loan is at single digit.”

The ad hoc panel investigating the activities of federally-owned DFIs, chaired by Rep Emeka Anohu (PDP, Anambra), said during a hearing yesterday that DFIs should be able to provide succour to Nigeria and Nigerians.

“The DFIs were established to stimulate the economy and one of the ways to know the extent to which this has been accomplished is to find out how many Nigerians have benefited from the various intervention funds in these institutions,” he said.

The committee requested to know the position of the BoI acting MD on government’s plans to establish a Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), which Olagunju said the bank was in support of.