World Street Journal News as it is…unadulterated!
The Bank of Industry has expressed its readiness to partner entrepreneurs in tailoring its funding to achieving greater economic impact. The bank urged customers and would-be beneficiaries to come forward with inputs that would enable it to serve them optimally.
The Acting Managing Director, BoI, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, who spoke through bank’s Divisional Head, Small and Medium Enterprises, South, Mr. Mohammed Abdul-Ganiyu, was quoted as saying that the bank had simplified the loan application and approval process by taking it online and eliminating time-wasting trips to various office locations across the country.
“We also commissioned business development service providers to help our customers prepare loan applications in order to ensure a higher level of approvals and engaged audit experts to assist customers to prepare audit records,” Olagunju said.
On some of the intervention schemes being implemented by the bank, the managing director said the BoI remained committed to helping young entrepreneurs realise their dreams of building their own businesses and creating job opportunities.
According to him, under the N2bn Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund, the bank has trained 868 members of the National Youth Service Corps and out of that number, 324 are qualified to apply for N2m that each person can access.
He also stated that the bank had created the N10bn Youth Empowerment Scheme for youths between the ages of 18 and 35 years, with a minimum qualification of Ordinary National Diploma or its equivalent, and that out of 71,000 entries received, 5,000 were accepted for an online entrepreneurial training course anchored by the Pan Atlantic University.
“We are currently running the first batch of training course in 20 centres across the country and the successful applicants will eventually be able to draw up to N5m,” Olagunju said.
