With seven projects presently accessing its facilities and another 10 at different stages of loan approval, the Bank of Industry has unveiled plans to facilitate access of members of the country’s creative industry to its facilities, as intervention to the sector hits N2bn.
Speaking during a visit to the set of a film by Kunle Afolayan at the weekend, the Managing Director, BoI, Rasheed Olaoluwa, explained that the bank had restructured its operations to improve access to its services, adding that the peculiarity of each sector was being considered for loan disbursements.
A statement from the bank quoted its MD as saying that the bank had relaxed its criteria to aid access to the facilities adding that viable distribution channels were equally being financed to aid loan repayment as well as mitigate default by stakeholders.
He added that the bank, in line with its mandate had developed a special product tagged “BoI NollyFund” under which Nigeria’s leading movie producers would receive financial support to produce world-class films and screen them through various platforms of movie distribution available both in Nigeria and internationally.
He said, “To support this process and ensure that only commercially viable scripts with good story-lines benefit from the scheme, the bank set up a NollyFund Implementation Advisory Group to advise the institution on loan approval to the creative industry.
“The Group’s mandate is to critically review all the film scripts and associated budgets submitted to BoI by movie producers and make technical recommendations to BoI management for final credit appraisal and subsequent approval in line with the bank’s credit policy.
“The visit to Kunle Afolayan’s set for the production of his new movie,” the CEO said, “is part of the bank’s activities in assessing the utilisation of the facility approved for a project. It is the same way when we visit factories to see how funds are utilised.
“NollyFund had an initial programme limit of N1bn and a single obligor limit of N50m for individual loans.
However, over N2bn has been accessed so far by the industry. Kunle Afolayan is the first person to access the fund, while others are underway”.
On his part, the movie producer, Kunle Afolayan, commended the bank for improving access to the facility, noting that the project wouldn’t have started without funding from the bank.
He said, “The BoI initiative for the creative industry should be encouraged.
“We had applied for facility some few years back but we got denied. With the restructuring of the loan processes, we have been able to access the funds easily, while the innovative approach to financing by the bank is highly commendable.”
Source - Punch
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