BOI: Why we fund SMEs on flexible security terms

The Bank of Industry (BOI) has revealed that it funds small and medium businesses using flexible security terms in order to support the economic diversification and industrialisation drive of the present government.

The acting managing director of the bank, Mr Waheed Olagunju, said it is a policy of the bank that led to the Leadership Public Service Person of the Year 2016 conferred on him at a recent event held in Abuja.

“Our strong resolve is to rapidly increase the volume of loans to MSMEs with very high viability prospects,” Olagunju said.

He said he planned to double the bank’s total loan book size over the next four years and to increase its MSMEs portfolio by 14 times of its current size.

BOI commits 85 per cent of its resources to funding Small and Medium Enterprises (SMSEs) in Nigeria.

Olagunju insists on business capacity development before funding stressing that funding alone could not assure viability in business.