October 24, (THEWILL) – Some Nigerian entrepreneurs have commended the Bank of Industry (BoI) for signing the sustainable banking deal with a United Nations agency.
The United Nations Principles for Responsible Banking was recently signed with BoI to drive development across countries through collaboration between financial institutions.
An Owerri-based pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Obinna Nwanosike, said the deal will strengthen the role of BoI as a catalyst for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as the country prepares for full implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).
The AfCFTA is a regional integration strategy to bring all 54 members of the African Union (AU) together in a single market. When fully operational, the initiative will collapse all trade barriers among the collaborating nations with a total population of 1.2 billion people.
The BoI’s mandate is to build indigenous entrepreneurship focusing on the industrial sector of the economy with the aim to encourage industrial production and value creation by manufacturing and processing activities of businesses. The objective is to provide the industrial sector with finance as well as business support services.
According to Nwanosike, this is the time to show the importance of BoI as there cannot be any better window of opportunity to play the role for which it was established than now. “The deal with the UN agency will really accelerate Nigeria’s industrialisation through the private sector with the backing of BoI”.
Similarly, the proprietor of a Lagos-based medium block-moulding firm, Akin Ademola, said BoI will have no reason not to come out fully to support local entrepreneurs.
Ademola told THEWILL that BoI has a history of supporting Nigerian entreprenuers who are genuinely committed to growing the economy through the production of quality goods and services and creating jobs. He noted that the deal with the UN agency will empower BoI to play its role more effectively.
The deal is a unified framework for a sustainable banking industry that was created through a collaboration between banks throughout the world and the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI).
Commenting on the deal, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of BoI, MrOlukayodePitan, said, “We are honoured to be the first Development Finance Institution in Nigeria to commit to the UNEF FI Principles for Responsible Banking alongside other leading DFIs in the international space.
“This global framework strengthens our approach to addressing the sustainable development challenges of our economy by critically analyzing our market to identify pressing needs of our communities, environment & customers
“As Nigeria’s foremost Development Finance Institution, BOI stands as a driving force for sustainable development through investment across the nation.”
It would be recalled that BOI grew its asset to N1.8 trillion in 2020 despite the disruptions to social and economic life by the pandemic in same year.
The BoI Chairman, AliyuDikko, revealed that the asset growth increased by 79.1 percent, compared to N1.04 trillion recorded at the end of 2019, citing the bank’s resilience in the face of operational difficulties brought about by COVID-19 globally and in Nigeria.
The Federal Government had disclosed earlier in the year that BoI, under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, secured a $1 billion syndicated loan to support Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
About the Author
Sam Diala is a Bloomberg Certified Financial Journalist with over a decade of experience in reporting Business and Economy. He is Business Editor at THEWILL Newspaper, and believes that work, not wishes, creates wealth.
