NEXIM Bank announces turnaround under new Board and Management

09 May 2019
Financial Nigeria

Summary

The Bank said its balance sheet size nearly doubled from N61 billion in 2016 to N117 billion in 2018.

NEXIM Bank Managing Director/CEO, Abba Bello

The Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM Bank) has said it disbursed about N22 billion over the last one year. According to a statement by the state-owned development finance institution (DFI), its interventions facilitated the creation and sustenance of 2,039 direct jobs – in addition to a large number of indirect jobs and substantial foreign exchange earnings for the country. At the end of its 2018 financial year, NEXIM Bank said it recorded a profit of N2.09 billion, compared with a loss position in 2017.

NEXIM Bank said it has experienced steady growth since the appointment of Mr. Abba Bello as Managing Director/CEO in April 2017. A new Board of Directors was subsequently inaugurated in March 2018, under the chairmanship of Deputy Governor in charge of Economic Policy at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Joseph Nnanna. NEXIM said its turnaround is a testament to the retooling of its operations under the new Board and Management.

Apart from recording the substantial profit, the Bank said its balance sheet size nearly doubled from N61 billion in 2016 to N117 billion in 2018. According to the Bank’s statement, its balance sheet size is projected to increase to N190 billion by December 2019.

NEXIM Bank is the official trade policy bank of the Federal Government (FG), jointly owned, equally, by the Federal Ministry of Finance Incorporated and CBN. The Bank is mandated to promote the diversification of Nigeria’s non-oil exports. The DFI provides financing and advisory services to Nigerian exporters.

In 2016, the CBN provided two intervention funds for NEXIM to manage to stimulate non-oil exports. The funds are the N500 billion Export Stimulation Fund (ESF) and the expanded N50 billion Export Credit Rediscounting and Refinancing Facilities (RRF). The intervention funds are underpinned by the PAVE philosophy, which is Produce, Add Value and Export. Both the ESF and RRF are accessible at single digit interest rates.

NEXIM Bank focuses on financing export-oriented businesses in the value chains of the non-oil sectors of manufacturing, agro-processing, solid minerals and services. Among the six intervention initiatives of the bank for supporting the non-oil export sectors are critical agricultural commodities. These are products that the country has high comparative advantage in such as cocoa, cashew, sesame seed, gum Arabic and leather products.

The DFI is also supporting export of services, which cuts across professional services, especially engineering and construction services, the creative economy, business process outsourcing & ICT (information and communication technology) as well as medical tourism/healthcare services.

NEXIM Bank said it is also working to improve the packaging of Nigerian exports. The aim of this initiative is to minimise incidents of rejection. In this regard, the Bank is providing funding and investment guarantees to facilitate private sector investments and partnerships in establishing laboratories and assaying facilities/related infrastructure.

“This is in addition to providing funding support towards establishing of conditioning, irradiation and sterilisation facilities to enhance shelf life of perishable goods, as well as production of jute bags, corrugated cartons and flexible packaging materials,” NEXIM said.

The trade policy bank of the FG is facilitating the establishment of a shipping company, through the Sealink project. The aim of this project is to provide maritime links between countries of West and Central Africa. The project is expected to facilitate annual shipment of over 30 million tonnes of solid minerals valued at $1.8 billion.

NEXIM is also partnering with other stakeholders, under the auspices of Financial System Strategy 2020 of the CBN to develop the regulatory and legal framework for "factoring" business in Nigeria. Factoring will serve as alternative financial instrument to promote trade and enhance access of the Small and Medium Enterprises to funds.  

NEXIM’s intervention is also targeted at state and regional development through the One State One Export Product (OSOP) programme. Under the programme, at least N1 billion has been earmarked to develop one or two identified exportable commodities towards achieving the Zero Oil Plan of the government and promote inclusive economic growth.


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