Nigeria: The Bank of Industry has announced a profit after tax of N12bn for the financial year ended December 31, 2015 and an income of N37bn from the disposal of West African Milk Company’s shares.
The bank, which attributed its improved profitability to operational efficiency during the financial year, said it disbursed loans worth N83.5bn to 776 enterprises (47 large enterprises and 729 Small and Medium Enterprises) in the year.
A breakdown of the bank’s earnings for the year showed that it recorded an unaudited profit before tax of N50.4bn for the year ended December 31, 2015. Its operating profit rose to N12bn from N6bn recorded in 2014, and it made an income of N37bn from the disposal of WAMCO shares.
The bank explained that the loans to large enterprises went to companies in Nigeria’s real sector such as agro-processing, food processing, solid minerals, gas value-chain, engineering, technology and light manufacturing
According to the bank, the loans for the SMEs were disbursed to companies in the various SME clusters such as fruit juice, cassava processing, fish farming, bakery and furniture, and the loans resulted in the creation of over 90,000 jobs in 2015.
“The bank’s operating results are underpinned by strong growth in the its balance sheet, improvement in the bank’s non-performing loan ratio from 18 per cent in May 2014 to four per cent in December 2015, and efficient cost management, which saw the growth in operating expenses limited to only 12 per cent in 2015,” a statement from the bank read.
Speaking on the result, the former BoI’s Managing Director, Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, said, “I feel very proud of what we achieved in 2015. We made significant developmental impact through the disbursement of over N83bn to nearly 1,000 enterprises.”
Source: Business News Nigeria