By Franklin Alli

The Bank of Industry, BoI, says collateral is no longer an issue for accessing its credit facility as it has designed credit schemes and products that allow reputable persons third party guarantees on loan applications.

BoI Managing Director, Evelyn Oputu, disclosed this while addressing Nigerian and Danish business community in Lagos. According to her, the issue of collateral requirement to access funding was neither here nor there because the bank has already identified that some serious businesses do not have collaterals.

“BoI has designed some credit schemes and products that have gone ahead to address people without collateral through cooperative lending and our bottom of the pyramid programme where we normally channel funds to microfinance banks for onward lending.

“BoI also accepts peer group and reputable persons’ third party guarantees to give grants to applicants, and also accepts lien on the equipment to be acquired with the given funds.

“So collateral is no longer an issue. What is important is the track record, attitude to debt servicing because credit has to do with integrity, if you have integrity issues definitely you cannot access the bank’s fund,” she said.
Represented by BoI’s Regional Head, South, Balarabe Hassan, she noted that there are several reforms and fiscal measures currently being implemented by government to bring about improvement in the nation’s investment climate, protect local companies and mobilise local and foreign direct investments into the manufacturing sector.

Oputu, said that the bank is not static as it has been designing solutions to challenges militating against specific sectors of the economy.

“BoI is always futuristic not having to wait but envisaging what will be beneficial to the economy and with proactive initiatives we make efforts to bring about economic development,” she said.

She explained that reforms take time to mature and that within the manufacturing sector the bank is trying as much as possible to see that all problems militating against the sector were addressed squarely. Fielding questions on the volume of trade between the two countries, the president of the Nigerian-Danish chamber of commerce and industry, mines and agriculture, Ben Koya Adako, said, “The volume of trade now, considering the size of Nigeria, I will not say it is too encouraging but as at the last report we had about 1.35 billion Euros.”