Bank Inaugurates N1bn Solar Energy Fund For MSMEs

The Bank of Industry (BOI) has inaugurated a N1 billion Solar Energy Fund for Micros, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country. The Acting Managing Director / Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Mr Waheed Olagunju, said Friday in Lagos that BOI decided to provide the solar energy to the MSMEs as a way of supporting their sustainability.
He said the bank was already playing an active role in lightening up and powering Nigeria through the provision of solar energy solution for rural communities.
Olagunju disclosed that a solar solution worth N240 million had successfully been deployed in six off-grid communities in Niger, Osun, Gombe, Anambra, Edo and Kaduna states, under its pilot scheme. The bank boss said, “These communities with an average of 200 homes each previously had no access to electricity, but since the provision of clean, reliable and sustainable solar electricity, lives of the indigenes of these communities have changed significantly”.
He said the provision had reduced energy costs, created more micro businesses, improved health care and quality of education and generally provided a new lease of life to indigenes of the communities. According to him, “The initiative is being replicated in other rural communities in collaboration with our development partners, United Nations Development Programme and relevant state governments and it is now being scaled up to provide energy for the MSMEs across the country, commencing with the N1billion Solar Energy Fund”.
BOI, being a development finance institution he said, was able to come up with highly concessional funding solutions with interest rate as low as seven per cent, flexible terms and conditions. He revealed that the projects would be implemented in collaboration with eight solar energy project developers, who had been carefully selected through a competitive and transparent process.
“They will be responsible for implementing the solar projects by providing the MSMEs with solar solutions using appropriate business models”, he stated.