THE Bank of Industry, BoI, has recorded a profit before tax of N17 billion in 2016, which represented a 44 percent increase over the N11.9 billion that was posted in 2015. The Bank’s loans and advances also rose by 10 percent to N171 billion in 2016, from N156 billion in 2015.

Also, the BoI’s 2016 results obtained on Wednesday, May 3, showed that disbursements to small and medium enterprises went up by 42 percent  within the same period to N8 billion, compared with N5.64 billion in 2015. The quality of BoI’s risk assets as well improved phenomenally with a reduction in the ratio of non-performing loans, NPL, to 3.72 percent in 2016 from 5.87 percent in 2015.

This feat was achieved in a year when the average ratio of non-performing loans in the nation’s banking industry rose sharply to 14 percent which is beyond the Central Bank of Nigeria’s, CBN, threshold of 5 percent.

While commenting on BoI’s outstanding performance 2016, which has been described as the best in the bank’s history despite last year’s economic head winds, Waheed Olagunju, acting managing director/ CEO, BoI, attributed it to strong commitment to professionalism and strict adherence to global best practices by the bank’s competent, dedicated as well as passionate management team and staff.

He added that these achievements also culminated in BoI’s consistently high ratings by international and domestic rating agencies being upgraded and affirmed. While Moody’s assigned BoI Aa1 in 2016 up from Ba3 of 2015, Agusto’s rating of AA- in 2016 was higher than A+ of 2015. AA+ assigned by Fitch in 2015 was affirmed in 2016.

—  May 15, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT