Business
Bank Pledges Partnership With NASENI On Indigenous Technology
The Bank of Industry (BoI)
has pledged its willingness to collaborate with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), to promote indigenous technology in Nigeria.
The BoI Managing Director, Mr Rasheed Olaoluwa, said this in Abuja recently when he led the bank’s management team on a working visit to the NASENI office.
Olaoluwa said that BoI was prepared to support and encourage Small and Medium-scale Enterprises (SMEs) that were ready to patronise NASENI’s products.
He also urged engineers to key into the agency’s initiative by partnering it on technology innovations that were development oriented.
He said there was a direct correlation between technology and the nation’s development, adding that it had been proven that no nation could develop without technology.
“BoI will be prepared to support SMEs that are ready to patronise NASENI’s technology. We are also willing to collaborate with the agency on many of its products like the solar panel and agricultural processing machines.
“A nation that wants to develop must pay attention to technology because it has been proven from the beginning of humanity that technologies control the economy.
“No matter how hard we try, unless we are able to achieve some form of independence in terms of technology, we are only scratching the surface,’’ the BoI boss said.
He said the bank’s role was to serve as an active link between centres of innovation such as NASENI with its affiliate institutes and industries, because BoI was seated at the centre of industrial development.
He urged NASENI to get its technology products patented to be able to get returns in form of royalty from its users to sustain the agency.
Executive Vice-Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NASENI, Dr Muhammed Haruna, said the agency was determined to own its technologies locally to drive the nation’s industrialisation.
Haruna said that NASENI had launched made-in-Nigeria motorcycles and tricycles and many other technologies which included cassava and grain processing machines and solar panel.
He said that BoI’s support for the agency’s innovations would help increase its capacity to produce more.
According to him, the possible areas of collaboration expected from the bank include training and capacity development for new and existing SMEs.
Haruna said the agency also needed the bank’s collaboration in the provision of appropriate technologies for entrepreneurs, indigenous industries, SMEs and industrial parks around the country.
“We also need collaboration in technical support and extension services to sustain the growth of new and existing indigenous industries and the development of off-grid electricity generation to support indigenous industries,” he said.
The NASENI boss said the agency had launched five kilowatts of kinetic turbine in Mada River in Nasarawa State, while currently working on 2×35 kilowatts in Ikeji in Osun.
Credit to Nigeria’s private sector rose to N83.26 trillion in June 2026 from N81.04 trillion in May, signifying a positive balance of N2.22 trillion month-on-month.
Year-on-year, the figure represents a nine per cent increase compared with the N76.13 trillion recorded in June 2025. The latest figures come as the CBN continues to balance efforts to control inflation with the need to support economic growth and expand credit to businesses.
The CBN data shows that credit to Nigeria’s private sector increased by approximately 2.74 per cent month-on-month between May and June 2026. Also, the CBN data noted that credit to the government fell slightly to N40.03 trillion from N40.38 trillion. Other assets, net, dropped to N10.76 trillion from N12.63 trillion.
The credit surge signifies sustained growth in lending to businesses and other private-sector borrowers during the month. The rise in private sector credit was recorded alongside an increase in net domestic credit, despite declines in credit to government and other assets.
Further analysis of the report says that compared with June 2025, private sector credit rose by about N7.13 trillion yea-on-year but net domestic credit increased by approximately N1.87 trillion during the month.
The CBN’s relatively tight monetary policy stance notwithstanding, more banks still loaded funds to the private sector within the period. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) held its 306th meeting on July 20 and 21.
The Committee reviewed recent developments in the global and domestic economies, assessed emerging risks to the outlook and considered their implications for monetary policy and retained all rates.
The Committee decided to retain the Monetary Policy Rate at 26.5 per cent; the Standing Facilities Corridor around the MPR at +50/-450 basis points and retain the Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) for Deposit Money Banks at 45.00 per cent, Merchant Banks at 16.00 per cent, and non-TSA public sector deposits at 75.00 per cent.
The MPC decision means that credit extension in the private sector will likely continue to rise because of rising confidence in the sector and calls by stakeholders for banks to invest in the private scetor instead of government securities.
