FG to prioritise BoI’s development role, mulls partial privatisation

In order not to strip off its roles absolutely, the Federal Government has assured it would prioritise the developmental aspect of Bank of Industry (BoI) even as it revealed it would lay more emphasis on partial privatisation of the bank.

Olusegun Aganga, the minister of industry, trade and investment, gave the clarification during an interaction with Nigerians in Diaspora on strategies of boosting Diaspora commitment in investment and trade in Nigeria over the weekend.

According to Aganga, “In a developing economy, there is a role for commercial bank and a role for development bank. A development bank has different priorities and commercial bank has its own priorities too. They are measured very differently in terms of achievements and successes.

“It is clearly the role of the government to ensure that we have development banks in the country. When we talk about the privatisation, it is supposed to be partial privatisation. I think it is targeted at investors who have similar mandates like the BoI. We are not going to remove the developmental aspect of the BoI, it is a key factor. We cannot come up with any role that would compromise the developmental aspect of the BoI”, he said.

Aganga noted, “Government recognises the role of the developmental banks and we are making further efforts to have a wholesale bank that would also support our plan in developmental projects.”