BoI, ADB Set to Release $500 million SME, Entertainment Fund

MD,  BOI, Ms. Evelyn Oputu

   

By: Crusoe Osagie

The Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Africa Development Bank (ADB) are set  to release a $500 million credit facility.

All formalities for the release of the fund, out of which $200 million is meant for the financing of Nigeria’s sprawling Entertainment Industry with the balance going into Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been concluded, BoI disclosed to THISDAY weekend.

Managing Director and Chief Executive of the bank Ms. Evelyn Oputu, dropped the hint in Lagos, at a capacity building programme themed: ‘Enhancing the Role of Media in Development Financing’ organised for business journalists by the bank.

Oputu said even though BoI had not yet received the fund from ADB, it had already released up to N1 billion to finance very promising entertainment ventures that needed to begin urgently.

She explained that the bank had concluded the financing of a film house in Surulere in Lagos, which is serving as a marketing point for the industry, adding that a movie from the popular book by Nigeria’s renowned author Chimamanda Adichie, ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ was also being financed by BoI.

Intimating on other developments in the bank, Oputu noted that the increase in the capital base of BoI from N250 billion to N750 billion had been approved by the federal government and barring the normal government bureaucracies the new capital base would be implemented.

She hailed the development explaining that it would help to enhance the reach of the institution and boost its performance.

The BoI chief executive called on journalists to, as a matter of patriotism, always report positively about anything that has to do with the country.

Oputu insisted that whenever there are negative reports about the nation, all Nigerians would be made to suffer the consequences.

“Whenever we travel abroad, the way Nigerians would be searched, even though some people from very bad countries would be there, but the Nigerians would be thoroughly ransacked under the guise of being criminals. This is as a result of the negative stories they read about the country.

“Whatever you write about this country, if it is negative, we will all suffer the consequences. Be you a journalists or whoever, we all suffer the embarrassment abroad. That is why I am seizing this opportunity to enjoin you to always write or say positive things about our activities in the country.”

The UNIDO Representative in Nigeria, Patrick Kormawa, in his address at the event, stressed that positive reports about Nigeria would boost her economy and thereby making the nation one of the biggest economies by 20-20-20.

While calling for more collaborations of all stakeholders to move the country’s economy forward, Kormawa called on journalists to perform their duties for the benefit and growth of the economy of the country.