President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, commissioned the second tower of the Bank of Industry (BoI) building located in the Central Business District of Abuja, charging the bank to take its developmental strides to the next level through business empowerment.
The BoI Tower 2 is a state-of-the-art innovative building with 12 lettable floors, a backup power system.
The facility is also built with a building management system, which monitors, supervises, controls and reports smart building technology systems, including generators, CCTVs and other gadgets.
Buhari described the contributions of the bank as “very significant to industrialisation” of the Nigerian economy.
He commended the management of the bank for its focused leadership in achieving the mandate to diversify the economy through the provision of single-digit interest loans to small, medium and large-scale enterprises.
Buhari said that over N1.4 trillion has been disbursed by the bank to businesses in Nigeria, adding that the impacts of its funding have led to the creation of over nine million jobs.
The President, who participated in the commissioning virtually, expressed optimism that with the raising of a €750 million Eurobond, the bank would be able to provide more funding to grow Nigerian businesses.
He said: “I am particularly impressed that this world-class building will finance internally-generated revenue (IGR) of the bank. The BoI has continued to successfully execute its mandate as a policy institution of the Federal Government. Through the bank, the government extended the single-digit interest rate loans to businesses.”
In his remarks, the Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Otumba Niyi Adebayo, described the commissioning as another great milestone achieved by the board and management of the bank under the Buhari administration.
Adebayo commended the National Assembly for approving the sovereign guarantee for BoI’s maiden €750 million Eurobond, which was successfully concluded in February this year.
The BoI Chairman, Aliyu Dikko, said the bank has delivered appreciable results on its mandate towards transforming Nigeria’s industrial sector by providing affordable and long-term financing across key sectors of the economy.
