BOI to disburse N40b in 2019, okays N2b dividend

The Bank of Industry (BOI) is to disburse over N40 billion soft loans to small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in 2019, as against the N33.9 billion it gave out last year.

Its chairman, Aliyu Abdulrahman Dikko, who was speaking yesterday at the organisation’s 59th yearly general meeting (AGM) in Abuja, submitted: ‘’In 2017, we recorded about N22 billion disbursements to SMEs. In 2018, our disbursements were N33.9 billion, but we should do better for SMEs. If we do not double the figure, we should do at least more than N40 billion in 2019.”

He said the bank recorded N36.7 billion profit before tax (PBT) in 2018 compared to the N26.4 billion tally of 2017, representing a 30 per cent increase, just as the board and shareholders approved about a N2 billion dividend.

‘’In 2018, the group’s total asset grew by 49 per cent to N1.07 trillion from N713.3 billion in 2017. Likewise, we also achieved improvement in our total equity which increased by 12.5 per cent year-on-year to N258.3 billion from N241 billion in the previous year,” Dikko added.

According to him, the institution improved its developmental impact by achieving 130 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis with respect to disbursement of new loans of N259.6 billion in 2018 with N33.9 billion of the figure going to SMEs while the balance was deployed to support large enterprises.

On the improved PBT, the chairman noted: ‘’This was possible because we have done much more in terms of disbursement of loans, especially to the SMEs.”

The Managing Director, Olukayode Pitan, said the impressive result was consequent upon the collective efforts of the board, management and staff as well as the cooperation of other stakeholders.

He stressed: ‘’For the first time in the history of the bank, we surpassed N1 trillion in asset base. The group’s profit was over N36 billion. For a bank that is owned basically by government, it is a very good result.”