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With N234 billion disbursed to 10,145 enterprises, to facilitate the creating of an estimated 1 million direct and indirect jobs, the Bank of Industry (BoI) said it recorded a profit of N39.33 billion in the 2019 financial year.
The 2019 financial accounts of the bank reflects a strong balance sheet as well as sustained business growth in line with both regulatory requirement and global best practices.
It also indicates a strong alignment with the strategic objectives of the Federal Government, especially in the areas of industrial growth and job creation.
According to the result, the group’s total equity as at year ended 2019 stood at N293.09 billion reflecting a 13.4 per cent increase over the N258.24 billion it posted in 2018.
In the same vein, the bank’s Profit Before Tax grew to N39.33 billion marking a year-on-year growth of 7.2 per cent over N36.66 billion of 2018.
The increase in profitability is as a result of improvement in loan book, as well as the efficient management of the group’s other assets and liabilities. Despite a slow start in the first quarter of the year due to the build-up to the 2019 general elections, the bank’s Loans and Advances grew by 16.7 per cent from N634.11billion in 2018 to N740.03 billion in 2019.
This was as Interest Income and Interest Expense increased by 20 per cent and 54 per cent on a year-on-year basis respectively due to increase in loan book as well as the impact of borrowings (full year impact on the interest expense in 2019, while 2018 impact was for 6months).
Meanwhile, during the year under review, the Bank of Industry (the bank) disbursed a total of N234 billion to 10,145 enterprises, thus facilitating the creating of an estimated 1 million direct and indirect jobs.
This was as its disbursement to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) segment increased from N33.9 billion in 2018 to N53.0 billion in 2019, representing a 56.3 per cent year-on-year growth.
It therefore consolidated its role as the managing partner of one of the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP), through which N8.2 billion was disbursed to beneficiaries in 2019, thus bringing the total amount disbursed to 2.3 million beneficiaries nationwide since inception to N36.9 billion.
In light of this performance, GEEP was recognised by the Desmond Tutu Fellowship for its role in driving financial inclusion.
The programme also won the African Development Bank’s African Bankers’ Award as the most impactful Financial Inclusion programme in Africa.
In the course of 2019, the BoI had initiated discussions with international strategic partners towards raising funds to boost its operations, in a transaction that was concluded in March, 2020.
It was against this background, that the sum of €1 billion (approximately $1.11 billion) was raised through a Syndicated Guaranteed Senior Loan Facility from 24 international financial institutions.
The managment is hopeful that the success of this transaction would enable the bank to catalyse domestic production and job creation on a transformational scale, enhance local industry competitiveness, attract domestic and foreign investments, integrate local industries into domestic, regional and global value chains, grow export earnings and positively impact the overall economic development of the country.
