The Bank of Industry has so far disbursed a total of N4.7bn loan to the Small and Medium Enterprises sector in the past 11 months.
According to the Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, says the amount, when compared to the N1.85bn which the bank disbursed last year, represents an increase of N2.85bn or 150 per cent.
The BoI boss gave the figures while speaking on the sidelines of the signing of a tripartite agreement for the establishment of the Kaduna State Entrepreneurship Programme between the BoI, the Kaduna State Government and the Kaduna Business School.
He attributed the performance of the bank in the SME sector of the economy to some of the recent initiatives implemented by the bank towards promoting small businesses across the country.
For instance, he explained that within the last one year, the bank had introduced some products specifically meant for the SMEs with a view to meeting the individual demands of small business operators.
He said, “There is an intensive focus on supporting the SMEs. Before last year, we didn’t have directorate for SMEs. Now we have a directorate where all they do everyday is the SMEs and that has really worked.
“Secondly, we used to have seven offices in Nigeria, but as I speak, we have 15. In one or two months, we are also going to open additional one in Sokoto State.
“We have also introduced a number of the SME-specific funds. For instance, we have cottage, agro-processing fund for people who want to convert agricultural products to foods.
“We have also introduced fashion fund specifically for the SMEs to fashion industry. The idea is we don’t want to treat all the SMEs as being the same.”
The BoI boss also said the management had automated the processes of the bank, adding that this had made the application and approval of loans less cumbersome.
He said, “We have also identified 35 different clusters and that has improved our ability to understand clearly the dynamics of each segment and be able to tailor our solutions.
“Beyond that, we also believe that the internal process in the bank has also improved significantly.
“A lot of things used to be done manually in the past, now we have automated our processes.
“The credit process is faster. Wherever I am, if a customer has satisfied all our Ioan conditions and they want to disburse, they don’t need to wait for me to return to Lagos, they just send it to me by email and I will approve via the email. That in itself has saved a lot of delays.”