The Bank of Industry has secured more than €2.22 billion and N250 billion in new funding through major financing transactions concluded between 2024 and 2026, as the development finance institution works to bridge Nigeria's industrial financing gap. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Olasupo Olusi disclosed the funding haul at a media roundtable, describing the capital mobilisation drive as central to the bank's 2025-2027 corporate strategy. A €1.879 billion syndicated facility completed in 2024 was subsequently recognised as Syndicated Loan Deal of the Year, while the N250 billion development bond was oversubscribed, signalling investor appetite for the bank's industrial financing activities.
The bank also secured €85 million from the European Investment Bank in 2026 to support agriculture, and another €50 million facility from the same lender for healthcare manufacturing. Olusi said the funding transactions reflected growing investor confidence in the bank's governance, financing pipeline and development impact. "Nigerian businesses need long-term, affordable capital, and the commercial banking system cannot provide enough of it. Filling that gap is our job," he said. The European Investment Bank facilities are expected to strengthen financing for domestic agricultural production and healthcare manufacturing, supporting efforts to reduce Nigeria's dependence on imported food and medicines.
The bank's lending activity expanded significantly in 2025. The Bank of Industry disbursed N644.9 billion that year, a 26 per cent increase from N510.9 billion in 2024, reaching 12,501 businesses and creating or supporting 1.68 million jobs. Of the 2025 disbursements, N120.9 billion went to women-owned businesses, while micro, small and medium enterprises received 41 per cent of total funding, exceeding the bank's 35 per cent target. The bank also disbursed N213 billion to agro-allied businesses and linked 47,508 smallholder farmers to processors. Through its Rural Area Programme on Investment for Development, it disbursed N6.5 billion to 880 rural enterprises across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, supporting more than 8,000 jobs.
Beyond funds raised from investors and development partners, the Bank of Industry is implementing a N200 billion Federal Government intervention package comprising a N50 billion Presidential Conditional Grant Scheme, a N75 billion MSME Intervention Fund and a N75 billion Manufacturing Sector Fund. More than 95 per cent of the intervention had been delivered, reaching 957,400 grant beneficiaries, 9,000 MSMEs and 104 large manufacturers. Under its 2025-2027 corporate strategy, the bank aims to double its loan book, disbursements and development impact instruments within three years. It has prioritised 15 sectors grouped under agro-manufacturing, other manufacturing, infrastructure, extractive industries and services, with 80 per cent of its large-enterprise lending now going to manufacturing and infrastructure.
The bank plans to deploy the new European Investment Bank facilities to agriculture and local healthcare manufacturing, expand financing for information and communications technology businesses through the iDICE programme, and work with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment on a National Industrial Finance Compact to mobilise additional long-term capital. For businesses and entrepreneurs, this expansion means greater access to long-term, affordable financing for industrial activities, agriculture and healthcare manufacturing.