By Franklin Alli
The Bank of Industry, BoI  is aggressively seeking offshore funding, especially from the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES, saying the federal government’s interventions fund for real sector development is insufficient to industrialise the country.

In a speech on ‘Industrialising Nigeria through effective financing, the Bank’s Managing Director, Evelyn Oputu, cited the combined pool of N700 billion entrusted to the bank by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN for onward lending to industrial enterprises, “ as grossly insufficient to meeting the need of Nigeria’s industrial sector.”

Represented by Waheed Olagunju, Executive Director Business Development of the Bank, Oputu said it is difficult to mobilise financing locally because of the high interest and financiers are not granting long term finance, hence the bank wants to borrow from the BNDES.
She stated that the bank is aiming towards becoming a self-financing national development finance institution, dfi.

“Industrialising Nigeria doesn’t depend on BoI alone, it depends on governments and other agencies,” she said.
According to her, states governors have crucial roles to play in the industrialisation of their respective states and this they can do by creating industrial clusters.

“Industrial clusters reduce the problems of Certificate of Occupancy, C of Os; recently, we canceled twelve projects in Nasarawa state because there were no C of Os,” she disclosed.
However, the total intervention funds being managed by the bank on behalf of the federal and state governments, international development partners and private sector now stands at about N1.6 trillion.

The breakdown of the cumulative figure are as follow: “CBN N235 billion financing fund for commercial banks, N100 billion cotton, textile and garment fund, N10 billion Rice sector Fund and N16.91 billion National Automotive Council Fund. Others are $4 million UNIDO Energy programme, $500 million AFDB fund, 500 billion Power\Aviation Fund; N5 billion Dangote Fund, N9.5 billion cement fund as well as N90 million Women Affairs fund.

“No government or development agency would give money to institution if it has been making loses. And they know the funds are secure with us, “she said.

Oputu refuted allegations from some entrepreneurs that without insider connection you cannot get loan from the bank. “You don’t need insider connection; rather, an entrepreneur should have a well packaged bankable proposal before seeking funding support from the bank. The bank insists on collateral for big loans because the money is not mine; it belongs to Nigerians, and if you don’t pay back the loan I’ll sell your house and recover the loan” she explained.