The federal government has said that the Bank of Industry’s (BoI’s) development finance could reach N1 trillion before the end of the year.
It will be recalled that BoI’s maiden N250 billion domestic bond was oversubscribed within five days, following strong demand from institutional investors.
Speaking yesterday at the opening of the two-day National Convening on Industrial Finance and Execution in Lagos, the Minister of State for Industry, John Owan, commended the Bank of Industry for supporting businesses through its debut development bond.
“BoI was able to raise about N250 billion and counting. Going forward, hopefully before the end of the year, we will be able to reach up to N1 trillion,” he said.
The minister emphasised that access to finance remains pivotal to unlocking economic growth, stressing the importance of supporting the manufacturing sector. He revealed that the ministry is collaborating with a private firm to deploy a model that will boost energy supply for industrial use.
“We’re working on getting power to industrial clusters. It was important to meet with them because, during our first roundtable on energy, we identified a model. We believed that if we achieved success there, we could replicate it across the country. We are making progress,” he said.
