By Bisi Daniels
The Bank of Industry has recorded yet another historic milestone by
achieving N3.3 trillion in Total Assets as at June 30 2023. This represents
a year-on-year growth level of 67% on N1.97 trillion asset level as at June
2022.
Profit before tax after impairments (PBT) has grown by an impressive
177% year on year from N37.5bn in June 2022 to N104bn in June 2023
(H1). This is due to the prudent management of the Bank’s assets and the
full hedge of the foreign currency assets.
The Bank has historically been able to maintain a non-performing loan (NPL)
rate below regulatory threshold of 5%. The Bank’s NPL as at June
2023 was 1.88% down from 3.6% as at December 2022.
BOI has also grown its equity position by 57% since June 2022 –
from ₦403.6bn to ₦634bn in June 2023 (H1). BoI’s equity position exceeds
regulatory requirement of ₦10bn for retail DFIs.
BoI has contributed to the national budget by paying dividends of
approximately N42.2bn and taxes amounting to N64.2bn from 2017 to date.
The Bank of Industry is Nigeria’s oldest and most successful DFI. The Bank is
a duly registered Company under the Companies and Allied Matters Act.
2020 and licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The Bank is
professionally run with strong corporate governance. It is audited by the
KPMG, CBN and rated by local and international rating agencies (Fitch,
Moody’s and Agusto & Co.)
The Bank has focused heavily on delivering its mandate of supporting
industry and MSMEs to grow and thrive by disbursing over N1.4 Trillion over
the last 5 years to over 4.4Million customers including MSMEs (Most of
whom are women owned) thereby creating and saving 10.005Million jobs.
Under the leadership of Mr Olukayode Pitan (MD/CEO), from 2017 to date,
BOI has raised over $5 billion from the international financial markets to
support its mandate of growing Nigerian industries, MSMEs, Women
entrepreneurs and youths.
The first of the transactions was a $750 Million syndication concluded in
2017 with the support of Afreximbank and a team of international Financial
Institutions (now fully paid off).
The second and third were the Euro 1Billion syndication closed in March
2020 and another $1Billion syndication that closed in December 2020 (to be
fully paid off by December 2023).
The bank’s maiden Eurobond of €750 million, concluded in February 2022
was the fourth transaction. This transaction marked the first of its kind in
several ways to the bank, Nigeria and Africa. This deal was the bank's first
Eurobond transaction and the first Euro-denominated Eurobond transaction
in Nigeria. The transaction was also the first Eurobond transaction covered
by Nigeria’s sovereign guarantee. It represents a benchmark for other
prospective issuers from the African continent. It earned the bank the
Agency Bond Deal of the Year award at the 2023 Awards event of the Bonds,
Loans and ESG Capital Markets in Cape Town, South Africa.
The fifth capital raising transaction was the €1 billion guaranteed senior loan
facility concluded in August of 2022. This deal also represents the first of its
kind, by any Nigerian financial institution, both in terms of its size and
structure.
Through this transaction, the bank raised liquidity at affordable rates
and diversified its funding sources by attracting new lenders at a time when
the international capital markets were prohibitively expensive and shut to
many borrowers. The bank also won an award for this innovative
transaction.
A €100 million line of credit from the French Development Agency (AFD) was
also concluded in August 2022 representing the sixth capital raising.
Through this credit facility, the bank can expand its financing interventions in
environmentally friendly and green projects. A grant of €2.5 million was also
included in this deal to support capacity building for both BoI staff and
customers.
Though the bank intervenes in sectors and projects that are considered
highly risky and unrewarding by conventional lenders, is able to develop a
business model to de-risk the affected sectors and projects for other lenders
to invest in.
Obviously, more of these interventions are required for the continued growth
and development of our economy, creation and retention of jobs for our
youthful labour force amongst other socio-economic benefits. These
interventions are better done using patient capital like equity rather than
debts.
All the above achievements would not have been made possible without the
fact that BoI has consistently been managed by competent and ethically
sound professionals.
The Bank’s policies, procedures and controls are benchmarked against world
class standards. The above facts have contributed to the Bank being one of
the best Development Finance Institutions in Africa.
Mr Pitan said, “In 2023, the BOI continued its impressive growth in major
financial indices on a year-on-year basis, thus consolidating its position as
Nigeria’s largest and most impactful Development Finance Institution.”
