MSMEs financing: BOI concludes another EUR1bn landmark transaction
…Disburses over N1.2trn to 4.2million enterprises for 9,048million jobs
The Bank of Industry (BOI) has announced the successful completion of a landmark EURO 1 billion Guaranteed Senior Loan facility and disbursed over over N1.2trn to 4.2million enterprises to create over 9,048million estimated direct and indirect jobs.
In a statement received by Nigerian NewsDirect, BOI stated that the successful close of this deal has further enhanced BOI’s capacity to deliver on its mandate which is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic diversification agenda.
The deal is quite unique and the first of its kind by any financial institution in Nigeria both in terms of its size and structure.
The transaction structure leverages the strong investment grade credit rating of AFC (rated A3 with a Stable Outlook by Moody’s) to wrap and credit-enhance BOI thereby benefitting from favourable terms that would otherwise not be available especially in these highly volatile markets.
The pricing of this deal was quite attractive at 3 months Euribor (floored at zero) + 1.65% per annum, as a result of this innovative structuring. At a time when international capital is prohibitively expensive, through this innovative transaction structure and the AFC Guarantee, BOI was not only able to raise liquidity but also able to diversify its funding sources and attracts new leaders.
This is the 5th time BOI has successfully raised funds in the international markets since 2018. With the conclusion of this transaction total fund raised by BOI from 2018 to date is in excess of $5 Billion.
The proceeds of this deal, like in the previous fund raising transaction, will be utilised to provide much needed medium to long term finance to Nigerian MSMEs and Large Enterprises with bankable transactions at affordable Naira interest rates.
“The Board, Management and entire staff of the Bank would like to express their profound appreciation for the unflinching support of our majority shareholders – the Federal Ministry of Finance incorporated and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“We also express deep appreciation to the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and investment. The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the CBN Committee of Governors supported BOI by providing a full guarantee to facilitate the AFC guarantee and a 100% currency swap to mitigate the foreign exchange rate risk.”