In 2017, BoI’s Total Loan Exposure To SMEs Hit Over N112bn
The Bank of Industry’s (BOI) total lending to Small, Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) stood at over N112.5 billion in the 2017 financial period, the Chairman of the Bank, Aliyu Dikko has said.
Dikko, who gave the figure during a presentation made at the yearly general meeting of the bank held in Abuja, yesterday, said despite the challenging operating environment, the bank recorded huge improvement in its financial performance.
According to him, total assets improved by 4.5 per cent from ₦682bn to ₦713bn between 2016 and 2017 respectively, while the group’s total equity also rose to ₦241bn in 2017 from ₦219bn in 2016.
He also explained that profit before tax also increased to ₦26.3bn from ₦16.9bn in the same period representing a growth of 55.6 per cent.
Dikko noted that the bank’s disbursement profile in the year also improved significantly to ₦112.5bn from ₦65.9bn that was achieved last year.
He said: ‘’Lending to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises also increased significantly to ₦29.5bn, when compared to ₦8.2bn in 2016.”
In his speech, the bank’s Managing Director, Olukayode Pitan, said the bank doubled its loan disbursement rate to the industrial sector.
When asked what has been the rate of loan repayment in view of the huge non-performing loan portfolios in the banking sector, he said BoI has one of the least NPL ratios in the industry.
He stressed: “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 as we have given out over N100bn in the 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 that are 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 we can reduce the risks in that space and make more banks to lend.”
He described the outlook for 2018 as very positive as the bank is even ready to give out more loans to boost the country’s industrial sector of the economy.
