The Bank of Industry, yesterday, announced a 2020 performance that showed its strength and resilience in the strong socio-economic headwinds generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, the fall of crude oil prices, and the general fall of business.
The bank is Nigeria’s first and the largest Development Financial Institution and it was expected to rise to the challenges of its customers and the nation at large.
At its 2020 Annual General Meeting, held virtually in Abuja, Mr Aliyu Abdulrahman Dikko, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, reported that despite the challenging year, Group Total Assets grew from N1.04 trillion to N1.86 trillion between 2019 and 2020.
He attributed the 79.1% increase largely to the successful debt syndications of €1 billion and $1 billion that were concluded in March and December 2020 respectively.
The Group’s Total Equity increased by 15.3% from N293.08 in the previous year to N336.48 billion in 2020; while loans and advances, affected by the adverse impact of the challenging operating environment on growth of new loans, grew in 2020 by 1.3% to N749.84 billion from the 2019 position.
Also, economic slowdown in the year as well as the various interventions and support initiated by the Bank for its customers, impacted on its Profit Before Tax, which fell by 9.6% to N35.54 billion.
Dikko said that rising up to its responsibilities, the Bank, through its partnership with the Federal Government on the National Social Intervention Programme, facilitated the disbursement N2.5 billion and N1.2 billion under the N-Power and Government Enterprise & Empowerment Programmes to 300,011 and 109,039 beneficiaries respectively.
He explained that living up to its reputation as a socially responsible organisation, “it donated the sum of N962 million towards the Coalition Against COVID-19 (CACOVID) and other initiatives at the Federal and State levels to address the negative impact of the pandemic.
“We also reduced interest rates on all BOI-funded projects by 2% p.a. – from 10% to 8% – for a 1-year period, and granted additional moratorium of 3 months on principal repayment granted to all beneficiaries.
“Furthermore, the Bank carried out the directive of the CBN, by reviewing and restructuring all projects managed under the CBN Intervention programme with moratorium extension of 3 months (with a possible extension to 12 months) and interest rate reduction to 5% per annum.
“In the same vein, the Bank worked with the Nigerian Content Development Management Board (NCDMB) to implement the reduction of interest rate on all credit facilities under the Nigerian Content Intervention (NCI) Fund from 8% pa to 6% pa, including extension of moratorium period.
In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Mr. Kayode Pitan noted that like every organisation across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the bank’s operations and performance in 2020.
But he said the bank continues to be relentless in its mission to support enterprises across the country.
“Now more than ever, we have to stay firm in our course to make Nigerian enterprises more competitive and promote industrialisation in the country.
Our commitment to building a customer-focused organisation is unwavering, and we believe that our activities in the year are proof of such commitment,” he said.
He listed major highlights of the year as including:
The Bank’s conclusion of a syndicated debt raising deal of €1 billion in the year from international lenders. The transaction had Credit Suisse A.G., Africa Export Import (AFREXIM) Bank, Rand Merchant Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation act as co-Lead Arrangers, Bookrunners and Underwriters. This loan was launched at €750 million, but was over-subscribed and thereafter up-sized to €1 billion.
Successful re-financing of its US$750 million AFREXIM loan that was initially raised in 2018. The deal, which also had Credit Suisse A.G. and AFREXIM Bank act as co-ordinating mandated Arrangers, Underwriters and Bookrunners, was also over-subscribed and upsized to US$1 billion marking the Bank’s third major international debt raising activity within the last 3 years.
Approval of the Governing Council of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) of the expansion of the Nigerian Content Intervention (NCI) Fund from $200 million to $350 million.
The selection of BOI as the implementing agency of the FG’s National LPG expansion programme aimed at considerably improving the adoption and use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) among the populace through the combination of awareness/sensitisation, infrastructure delivery and funding. If executed, the Bank will be the managing institution of the N500 billion self-sustaining LPG Energy Fund.
Engagement by the World Bank of BoI’s microcredit infrastructure to deploy the World Bank’s $750 million Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NCARES) programme A total of 26 states of the Federation have now subscribed to using the Bank’s infrastructure for the execution of CARES in their states.
The Bank is also working in collaboration with AFREXIM Bank in the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZs)/Industrial Parks (IPs) in Nigeria by leveraging the private sector concessioning model.
In addition to this, the Bank is a strategic partner and impact investor on the AFREXIM Medical Centre of Excellence project which, when completed, would enable the provision of medical services in line with global best practices.
Following the bank’s appointment as the local execution agency for the Business Resilience Assistance for Value-Adding Services for women (BRAVE) program in Nigeria, the Bank signed a Technical Assistance Guarantee Agreement with the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDBG). The establishment of a Project Management Unit (PMU) that will execute the program is nearing completion.
Looking ahead to 2021, Mr. Dikko stated that the Bank’s broad strategy shall mirror that of the Federal Government, in terms of focussing on business recovery, whilst keeping an eye on growth and new business opportunities.
Mr. Pitan added, “our main priorities shall be to work with existing customers to ensure their full recovery post-COVID-19. We shall also seek new prospects in need of finance to either set up or scale up their business operations. To facilitate this, we intend to take a multi-pronged approach that will see us improving the quality of service offerings and identifying new business sectors and opportunities towards expanding our target market.”