BoI unveils plans to de-risk loans to small businesses

The Bank of Industry (BoI), has opened discussions with the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), and the Nigeria Export and Import Bank (NEXIM), to de-risk its loan portfolios to small scale businesses, the Managing Director, Olusegun Pita, has said.

BOI is also working closely with these agencies to embark on SMEs rating, and how to ensure easier credit lending to those that meet risk-acceptance criteria for loan access from the Bank.

Pitan gave the indication Tuesday in Abuja, when he met officials of the Secretariat of the Presidential Council on the Ease of Doing Business.He expressed confidence that efforts are ongoing to ensure easier access to credits for small scale businesses, while considering credit behaviour of small and medium enterprises.

He said: “We are working with SMEDAN and NEXIM together to have a credit registry data. Once we have that kind of data, by the end of the year, it would help us to monitor credit behaviour of people and improve access of credit to them.

“People say accessing credit from the Bank of Industry is difficult because we are asking for Bank guarantees. Yes, we do ask for bank guarantees, but it is not in all our credits that we ask for such guarantees.”

“There are some facilities that all you require are two guarantees, such as the programme we have for young graduates. What is important is that we want Nigerians to know that borrowing from the Bank of Industry is not to access your own share of the national cake.”

Earlier in her remarks, the Coordinator of the PEBEC Secretariat, Jumoke Oduwole, called on BoI to make it easy for small business owners to access credit.She said the Council is working with many agencies of government to make it easier for people to do business in Nigeria.Oduwole said the ease by which small scale businesses access credit from banks in Nigeria, will play a vital role in the country’s ease of doing business ranking by the World Bank.