BOI targets MSME with $750m syndicated loa

BOI has revealed plans to disburse $750 million loan (N250bn) to micro, small and medium Enterprises at single digit interest rates. BOI Managing Director, Mr. Olukayode Pitan made this statement at the Afreximbank AGM sidelines in Abuja after the signing of loan agreement.

The loan would be given to entrepreneurs across the country for a period of between five and seven years to assist with the funding for MSMEs.
Olukayode Pitan described Afreximbank’s loan to the BOI as the largest syndicated facility received by a development finance institution in Nigeria, adding that a total of 16 banks financed the deal. Some of the lenders who provided the fund are Africa Export and Import Bank, ECOWAS Investment and Development Bank and British Arab Commercial Bank Plc, among others.

“There were 16 international banks that took part. Four Nigerian banks that were based in the UK were a part of it. This money is medium term, which is three years and the interest is very good when you look at the rate Nigeria usually borrows,” he said.
“The idea is to support industries. What this loan allows us to do is, it gives additional N250bn depending on the exchange rate that is used, between N230 billion to N250 billion to deploy to the industrial sector. We have done our own study. There is a gap in the funding of industrial sector, to the tune of N704 billion. This is our way to reduce that gap.”

According to Pitan, the loan recipients include companies operating in the creative industry, manufacturing, and gender-based businesses. This, he noted, would help reduce the unemployment rate in the country and create wealth for small and medium-sized enterprises.
“We are looking at small, medium and large enterprises. We are looking at enterprises or companies that have a focus in using local raw materials, companies that generate employment and bring down their cost of borrowing,” he said.