The Bank of Industry (BoI) has recorded a profit of N39.33 billion for the 2019 financial year.
The bank has also disbursed ₦234 billion to 10,145 enterprises, thus facilitating the creating of an estimated 1 million direct and indirect jobs, according to the bank in its financial statement.
The 2019 financial accounts of the Bank also indicates a total equity, as at year ended 2019, was ₦293.09 billion, showing a 13.4% increase over 2018 position of ₦258.24 billion.
Profit Before Tax of the group grew to ₦39.33 billion, marking a year-on-year growth of 7.2% over ₦36.66 billion of 2018.
The increase in profitability is as a result of improvement in loan book, as well as the efficient management of the group’s other assets and liabilities, according to Kayode Pitan, the Managing Director of BOI.
He said, despite a slow start in the first quarter of the year due to the build-up to the 2019 general elections, loans and advances grew by 16.7% from ₦634.11billion in 2018 to ₦740.03 billion in 2019.
Interest Income and Interest Expense increased by 20% and 54% on a year-on-year basis respectively due to increase in loan book as well as the impact of borrowings (full year impact on the interest expense in 2019, while 2018 impact was for 6months), the bank noted in the financial statement.
The disbursement to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) segment increased from ₦33.9 billion in 2018 to ₦53.0 billion in 2019, representing a remarkable 56.3% year-on-year growth.
The bank also consolidated its role as the managing partner of one of the Federal Government’s Social Investment Programmes, Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme (GEEP). ₦8.2 billion was disbursed to beneficiaries in 2019, thus bringing the total disbursed amount since inception to ₦36.9 billion to 2.3 million beneficiaries nationwide.
In light of this outstanding performance, GEEP was recognised by the Desmond Tutu Fellowship for its role in driving financial inclusion.
The programme also won the African Development Bank’s AfricanBankers’ Award as the most impactful Financial Inclusion programme in Africa.
