The Bank of Industry (BoI) has disclosed that it is in the process of procuring the services of professional Business Support Service Providers (BSSP) with a view to helping prospective loan seekers acquire information and develop bankable applications.
Its Managing Director, Rasheed Olaoluwa, stated this during his visit to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), Lagos recently.
The BoI boss noted that it was important for FIIRO to explore the potential of de­ploying low-cost local tech­nology that can help SMEs compete favourably.
“One of our key strategic development initiatives is to pursue linkages between industrialists and centres of innovative development solutions that can produce indigenous and low cost technology that would help accelerate growth industri­ally,” he said.
He pointed out that in ev­ery state of the country, there is at least one agricultural product that can be focused on for commercial and in­dustrial development and that industrialisation based on agriculture would make a lot of impact on the popula­tion.
“Recently, President Goodluck Jonathan launched the Nigerian Industrial Rev­olution Plan (NIRP), the document identifies four key sectors of the nation’s com­parative advantage and one of them is agricultural pro­cessing, which FIIRO has an edge in helping to accelerate its development,” he said.
He said the bank and FI­IRO were in alignment in helping to create jobs and as­sured the researchers of BoI’s support in terms of collabo­ration; informing and sensi­tising Nigerians; the promo­tion of developed technology through exhibition and other avenues to ensure their vis­ibility and availability.
“It is essential to build ca­pacity for accredited equip­ment fabricators to improve our local technology by mak­ing it more effective, attrac­tive and low cost in order to also encourage the youths to participate in industrial revo­lution in this digital age,” he said.
The agencies noted that despite the huge deposit of natural resources in the coun­try, there was need to devel­op homegrown solutions to address the gaps in the coun­try’s industrialisation drive.
With research already con­ducted in key areas where the nation has competitive and comparative advantage, the two agencies equally con­cluded plans to review inter­vention strategies that would drive agro-processing in line with their mandates.
The move would include interventions that would aid the country’s transformation from farming to developing small-scale enterprises, food processing and industrialised agro-industries.
He remarked that the lead­ing development finance institution in Nigeria had a similar mandate to that of the research institute in enhanc­ing economic development, hence the need to streamline activities between both in­stitutions in a way to engen­der growth for the country through industrialisation.
He observed that at 6.8 per cent, the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the nation’s GDP was low, adding that, “we need to find home-grown solution to our economic growth.”
“Rather than appeal to in­dustrialists to utilise FIIRO’s inventions, we will support those who come to take up equipment from FIIRO,” he said.
 

BoI takes new step to support loan seekers