Bank of Industry tasks BDSPs on SMEs mandate

THE Bank of Industry (BoI) has charged its recently appointed Business Development Service Providers (BDSPs) to identify only credible and genuine Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to access its fund in the country.‎

   The Managing Director, BoI, Rasheed Olaoluwa, explained that the bank will only throw its full weight behind SMEs that are credible and genuine to do business with, saying that his administration is poised to help the sector thrive in the harsh business operating environment in the country.

    The BOI boss during a capacity building session for ‎BDSPs, stressed that BOI is not a platform for sharing what he called the national cake, and implored the BDSPs to adopt a painstaking effort to select SMEs that are worthy of the bank loans.

   “Expectations are very high to yield a lot of result for Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) development. SMEs are very important, there are about 17 million SMEs in Nigeria according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) contributing over 50 per cent to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP),” he said.

He noted that despite the sector’s potential, it is perceived to be a very risky segment for banks to lend. 

“In more cases than not, SMEs do not get support. There have been a lot of talk but little actions have been taken to address problems hindering SME development in the country. It is our expectation that at the end of the seminar, we are going to be on the same page by brainstorming the way forward for SMEs in the country,” he said.

  According to him, “BoI is ready to support genuine SMEs. This is where the BDSPs come in to help us filter and‎ identify serious and genuine SMEs. We are ready to lend to them, but we will not throw away money.”

  Also speaking at the event, the Executive Director, BoI, Waheed Olagunju‎ stated that the bank has concluded plans under its new management to ‎increase focus to SMEs in the country, noting that most of its developmental funds will be directed at growing the SME sector. 

  He added that the development finance institution has so far disbursed over N613‎ billion naira to support both large and small entrepreneurs in the country, but stressed that large businesses benefitted most of the funds disbursed.

  “If many of our resources go to the SMEs, we will be able to create about 2.4 million jobs because of the mutilpying effect of this sector along the value chain. However, we are bent on reversing the trend within a very short time,” he said. 

  According to him, 30 per cent of the bank’s risk assets will be focused on SMEs in order to touch and impact more positively to improve the standard of living of the citizenry.

   “We have designed more products to help SMES in the country because we believe a lot more can be done ‎in terms of development for small businesses rather than large businesses,” he said.