The Bank of Industry (BoI) recorded N2.3 trillion profit before tax in the last 8yrs under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.
This was disclosed by the Chairman Board of Directors of the bank, Alhaji Aliyu Dikko on the sidelines of the 63rd Annual General Meeting of the bank in Abuja.
“It has been excellent. If you look at the eight years when we came on board the total assets of the bank was about N630 billion.
“Right now it has grown to about 2. 3 trillion. So you can see that it has multiplied by more than three times.
”So the bank has done excellently well in the last eight years,” he said.
On Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), Dikko said the risk encountered in MSME businesses is that money could be lost easily.
According to him, this makes it difficult for financial institutions to easily give out loans to small business owners.
”What we are trying to get the government to do is to create a corporation that guarantees SMEs.
“Once we have that, the bank will be willing to give to the SMEs, because they know that whatever they give to them is guaranteed by any organisation.”
On the bank’s projections for 2023, the board chairman said Africa’s economic growth was expected to remain slow, due to spill over effects from uncertainties in the global environment.
He said as the debt servicing burden rises, a growing number of African Governments are expected to seek bilateral and multilateral support towards managing the adverse economic impact.