As Nigeria grapples with the worst economic recession in more than two decades, some of the attendant challenges have been massive loss of jobs and growing unemployment. One government institution that has, however, stood out in the drive for job creation through its offerings and services across the nation is the Bank of Industry.
Without giving room for political tints to hide immediate and past gains, it is hard to ignore BoI’s milestones in the delivery of its job creation and poverty alleviation mandates.
Though the management of the Development Finance Institution still has more to do in making a huge impact across the six geopolitical zones of a country as big as Nigeria, it is not out of place to say that the BoI has laid a veritable foundation for sustainable growth, if only the momentum could be sustained.
In the last 12 years, the DFI has granted loan in the region of N823 billion to beneficiaries across the real sector of the Nigerian economy, at low interest rates, to pave the way for profitability.
Aside from the fact that these speculations had generated a lot of heat in the industry, especially among the staff and patrons of the bank, we believe that the leadership of such a sensitive institution should neither be tribalised nor politicised
Acting Managing Director of the bank, Waheed Olagunju, also disclosed recently in Lagos that the bank had created over two million jobs within the years. One other feather in its cap is the N10 billion Youth Entrepreneurs Support Programme (YES-Programme), which was introduced to save the country from the dangerous consequences of growing unemployment.
The objective of the initiative, which was launched by Olagunju, is to create an interactive learning platform to train young aspiring entrepreneurs in entrepreneurship, business management and technical skills that would ultimately translate into improved efficiency and productivity.
This, analysts said, would also help in reducing youth unemployment rate from 25 per cent as at the end of 2016 to the barest minimum in the very near future.
“To kindle the entrepreneurial spirit of the youths; to act as an incubation centre, where business ideas are nurtured to their full potentials, as well as entrench global best practices by inculcating a culture of innovation-driven entrepreneurship and ethics in participants are other objectives of the YES-programme,” the acting MD had said. The development institution also introduced the Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund, a meritbased N2 billion financial inclusion scheme for youths, which was launched in partnership with the National Youth Corps Service Directorate.
GEF is targeted at serving members of the NYSC, as it is an innovative approach aimed at tackling the social malaise of graduate unemployment that has engulfed the country. The strategy is to identify the innate talents of the young graduates as soon as they leave school, build their capacities for self-reliance; and also empower them to establish their own businesses, thereby creating jobs, not just for themselves, but also for other youths, who they may employ.
Aside from this, indirect jobs will be created as a result of ventures promoted under the GEF. It involves an online business ideas competition. In the last competition, 3,100 serving members of the NYSC made their submissions, out of which 1,000 top scorers emerged.
These successful candidates underwent entrepreneurship capacity building programmes in seven locations in the six geopolitical zones of the country, including a special centre in Lagos, to facilitate access to finance for their business plans.
Another commendable poverty alleviation stride of the bank, which stakeholders said had been taken to a higher level under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, is the partnership with state governments and corporate organisations on SME empowerment.
These include: the Benue State’s N2 billion MSME financing agreement; Gombe State’s solar electrification project; Kaduna State’s N48.4 million scheme and Abia State’s N1 billion lifeline for SMEs, among others. Without doubt, if the BoI model is replicated in other DFIs, its strides indicate that unemployment and poverty rates in the country would drop drastically.
Shockingly, however, and contrary to the general saying that ‘you don’t change the winning team’, the acting managing director, who had, along with others, been at the centre of the innovations that have placed the bank at the forefront amongst its peers, has not been confirmed after acting as MD for more than one year.
Plans, it was gathered, were also being engineered to push for an early retirement for the Queens University-trained Olagunju, in order to prevent any future ‘rebellious act’ and probably give preference to a particular section of the country.
Aside from the fact that these speculations had generated a lot of heat in the industry, especially among the staff and patrons of the bank, we believe that the leadership of such a sensitive institution should neither be tribalised nor politicised.
Such appointments should be earned based on merit, while taking note of the fact that, at this point in Nigeria’s economic history, thriving institutions should be allowed to consolidate on low hanging fruits, planted by bright minds.
In all, we encourage other specialised financial institutions to toe the path of BoI by actively delivering on their job creation and poverty alleviation mandates. This is the only way to go if Nigeria must grow its economy on a sustainable basis and exit the current economic recession.
For BoI, there are still complaints about the inability of some eligible Nigerians to access its facilities. There should, therefore, be increased awareness campaign in the major local languages, and on grassroots platforms, to get everyone on board.
