The Bank of Industry (BoI) says it has set up mechanism to improve relationship with its over 200 Business Development Support Providers (BDSP) across the country.
BoI said the aim was to deepen financing of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
The Managing Director of BoI, Mr Kayode Pitan, announced this on Monday in Lagos, during an interactive session with stakeholders on the operation of the bank’s BDSP Scheme.
Pitan, represented by Dr Waheed Olagunju, the Executive Director, SMEs said that the country’s private sector was not as developed as it ought to be, thus necessitating the need to deepen its entrepreneurship space.
He said that the BDSP scheme was created in 2014, to bridge the gap of access to finance, entrepreneurial development, assist MSMEs develop bankable business plan to facilitate finance and improve their record keeping.
The BDSPs are also expected to support SMEs develop synergies and sustainable relationships with large enterprises, industrial buyers and suppliers along the value chain.
“We plan to grow our risk asset to N1.29 trillion by Dec. 2019, and presently our risk assets is in the region of N600 billion and we hope we can double this figure in the next 18 months.
“We cannot do this on our own, given the size of this country and numbers of entrepreneurs that we intend to reach.
“We are trying to increase the contribution of MSMEs from less than 10 per cent of our risk assets to at least 30 per cent by 2019.
“We are looking at about N376 billion and we are looking to disburse this amount to about 9,600 entrepreneurs across the country, approximately about 10,000 entrepreneurs.
“Given the size of Nigeria, BoI as a DFI cannot effectively engage more than 10,000 entrepreneurs effectively and efficiently, that is why we are working with partners, collaborating with Enterprise Development Centres and BDSPs across the country,” he said.
Pitan noted that there was the need to collaborate and leverage on the expertise of the BDSPs to evaluate and access the character, competency and viability of the 10,000 enterprise across the country.
He urged the BDSP operators to attract quality customers with viable business plans that would effectively utilise the loans in order to achieve an inclusive and sustainable economic growth and development in the country.
“To achieve this inclusive growth, we need to intervene more in the MSMEs space because that is where the developmental impact and multiplier effects of investment is much higher,” he said.
Pitan said that the bank was taking steps to review the BDSP scheme and would continue to engage the operators on the modalities that would serve the interest and growth of MSMEs in the country.
Mr Simon Aranonu, the Executive Director, Large Enterprises, BoI said that the collaboration between the bank and BDSP operators was critical to catalyse growth of MSMEs in the country.
According to him, MSMEs requires more than capital to grow.
“We are relying on you to assist the MSMEs get structure, hand hold them, improve their capacity, inculcate in them sound corporate governance and enlighten them on global best practices.