In spite of the daunting challenges facing the Nigerian economy, Bank of Industry, a developmental bank has been quietly creating jobs opportunities through its developmental projects.
For the developmental bank’s financial year ended 31st December, 2014, the level of loans and advances to enterprises rose nine per cent from N498.2 billion for the period under review in 2013 to N544.3 billion in 2014.
Te multiplier effect of this growth in loans midwifed 500,000 jobs during the year 2014 directly and indirectly.
Bank of Industry (BoI) group’s capital and reserves went up 5.9 per cent from N153.7 billion in 2013 to N162.2 billion in 2014.
In a like manner, the group’s profit rose significantly by 137 per cent from N2.18 billion in 2013 to N5.19 billion in the corresponding period of 2014.
Chairman of BoI Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu said, ” in line with our banks’ mandate, we have been involved in a number of capacity building sessions for our Small and Medium Scale Enterprise ( SME) customers.
He gave the instance of the Brand2 Wealth seminar, a session which participants are empowered with branding knowledge so they can build a comprehensive business and develop strong product and services”.
The bank nominated 10 SMEs to attend the seminar in years 2013 and 2014.
As part of BoI’s effort towards supporting commodity-based industrialization, he bank launched the Cottage Agro Processing (CAP) Fund, a N5 billion fund in the year to encourage the establishment of cottage Agro- processing plants which will produce food products and raw materials for industries within and outside the Staple Crop Processing Zones (SCPZs) across Nigeria.
The CAP fund also provide Agro-processors with access to finance and technology to process agricultural products. The CAP fund aims to create over 20,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians, said Rabiu.
He said the product target is SMEs, and the bank intends to deploy a second phase after the full utilization of the fund.
“The bank wish to use this product to leapfrog value for Nigerian agricultural products ahead of countries like Kenya and Ethiopia that are already controlling a significant measure of the international leather and nuts markets”, he explained.
The bank, during the year accorded priority to projects that have great multiplier effect on its customers and the economy generally. It explored the possibility of ensuring that the Bank’s activities has developmental impact such as wealth creation remain a consistent employment channel for Nigerians.
In line with that vision, the bank signed a Memoranda of Understanding ( MoU) with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in January last year towards lending N3.44 billion to cassava bread producers.
For the management of the bank, this fund aims to achieve the inclusion of 20 per cent cassava flour into wheat flour for baking of cassava bread as well as other confectionary as part of the agricultural transformation agenda of the Federal Government.
During the year under review, the bank also signed an MoU of N13.6 billion with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development towards the establishment of 10 rice integrated rice mills and six integrated cassava mills across the country.
In a bid to reach more customers across the country, the bank said it has restructured its initial 7 zonal offices into 7 regional offices alongside 14 states offices .
In a bid to enhance its operations, the bank during the year upgraded its banking application to a newer and more robust version. The new version provides the opportunity for the bank to significantly improve efficiency in its operational capabilities, improve business support and enhance customer service delivery to its customers.
The Bank’s chairman assured that the bank will continue to focus on achieving its vision, mission and mandate.
“We shall continuously monitor developments in our environment and ensure that pro-active steps are taken to make sure that the bank remains on course towards achieving its corporate objectives and goals”.
Rabiu said that the banks
‘s new strategy blueprint provides a framework within which the bank shall operate by providing strategic focus in addressing the ever changing needs of its customers.
“We are also in the process of re-engineering our processin a bid to leverage automation opportunities to achieve operational efficiency”, said Rabiu.