BoI Revs Up SMEs

  It will be stating the obvious to say that the Bank of Industry Limited, (BOI), has contributed enormously to the development of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMSEs) in Nigeria. The most recent in its effort to ensure that small businesses play their part in national development as the engine room of economic and industrial growth, is the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund
. In this funding programme, the bank has set aside N2 billion in the first year to encourage young Nigerian graduates of tertiary institutions who are currently serving under the National Youth Service Corps (nysc) programme to start up new businesses as well as expand existing ones.
It will support the establishment and/or expansion of an estimated 1,000 enterprises promoted by NYSC members across the country. The scheme is expected to create a minimum of 5,000 direct jobs and 25,000 indirect jobs annually, totalling 30,000 jobs.
Before this laudable Fund was put in place, there was also the Federal Government Special Intervention fund for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). With a programme limit of N5 billion, it is an initiative to provide subsidised loans to SMEs at single digit, all inclusive interest rate. The Fund is also to cater for applications received from Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) under the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) Scheme.
It is aimed at stimulating economic activity in the SME sub-sector being the major drivers of industrialisation, wealth and job creation particularly those engaged in manufacturing and agro-processing businesses with emphasis on value addition to local raw materials.
With the coming on board of Mr Rasheed Adejare Olaoluwa’ the BoI has become more creative and impactful in the delivery of its mandate to address the issues of poverty reduction and the phenomenon of rising youth unemployment with its attendant threat to political stability, social cohesion and economic growth of the nation. The new management’s person-centred and demand-driven approach towards promoting and developing competent and productive initiatives has made it a most sought-after development bank. Placing emphasis on prudent project selection and management, the bank supports quality projects with potential development impact that can re-grow the economy.
Its Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) scheme, for instance, is an on-lending scheme using the services of Microfinance Banks (MFBs) as vehicle for credit delivery to the under-served and under-banked micro-entrepreneurs strategically initiated for job and wealth creation focusing on the rural micro-enterprise operators with a view to extending financial inclusion to them.
An estimated minimum of 40,000 direct and 120,000 indirect jobs (totalling 160,000) are expected to be created at an average loan size of N250,000 per ultimate obligor, according to projection. In the past 18 months, BoI has signed different Memoranda of Understanding to support certain sectors like rice, cassava and other agro-allied businesses to bolster government desire to diversify the economy.
Also, the bank’s Cottage Agro-Processors (CAP) Fund is deployed to supply and install equipment for an estimated 1,000 cottage mills across the country. Through this, it is expected to create a minimum of 5,000 direct and 15,000 indirect jobs for Nigerians.
As the country’s oldest, largest, most stable and successful development financing institution, a fact recently affirmed by the Ba3 rating it received from Moody’s Investors Service, we will encourage BoI to harness every potential towards the provision of financial, technical and logistic backstopping for the establishment of large, medium and small projects as well as for the expansion, diversification and modernisation of existing enterprises. Most importantly, we support the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund of BoI for it is a sure way to put the nation’s youth back to work.

Source:Leadership.ng