The management of the Bank of Industry (BOI) has said it would require about $5 billion over the next two years to make an impact in the implementation of the federal government's National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP).

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, BOI, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, explained that the bank has become a national strategic imperative, especially in view of the NIRP and the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) recently launched by President Goodluck Jonathan.

Olaoluwa in his maiden press briefing added that the bank is confident about its shareholders, the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN's) support for equity injection, taking cognisance of the huge demands on government resources.

According to him, BOI would be exploring alternative modes of funding such as continuation of sector specific intervention funds by the CBN, ministries of agriculture, solid minerals, managed funds from various state governments and High Networth Individuals (HNIs) and foundations.

Others are long term loans at very low interest rates from multilateral and international development institutions; ‎domestic and international bond issuance and other sustainable annuity sources that may become statutorily imperative in the medium-long term.

He said going forward, to execute the forgoing funding programme, BOI must adopt global best practices maintaining that it would also be greatly engaged in good corporate governance, sharp ‎focus on its core mandate, sound risk management and compliance and venture capital investments.

The BOI boss also added that it would engage in partnerships and collaborations, customer service and responsiveness and create linkage between innovation and industry.

He pointed out that financing the nation's development agenda is a huge task and therefore called on Nigerians with creative ideas to partner BOI to brainstorm way forward in providing creative ideas that BOI can explore.

"To this end, we have created a contact email address: ideas@boinigeria.com. We welcome submissions not more than two pages. We undertake to consider all the ideas and act on those considered feasible," he said.

He said BOI has so far granted a total of N692 billion both directly and through intervention funds,creating close to a million jobs in the process.

"Although BOI has become more active in recent past, there is still a long way to go when compared to similar development finance institutions in the developing and emerging world," he said.

He stated that the recent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rebasing exercise, further underscores the need for BOI to continue to take the lead especially when compared to similar institutions in South Africa, Egypt, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia and the likes.
‎

He noted that since his resumption of duties as the Managing Director of BOI, he has engaged with several other stakeholders in its development finance journey.

In his words, "I have also engaged with relevant agencies of government such as the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), the National Automotive Council (NAC), the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN)."

Source: THISDAY
bullsnbearsng