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NEXIM Bank :Board endorses five-year strategic plan
Newsdiaryonline Mon July 11,2011
The board of
Nigerian Export-Import
Bank has endorsed a five
–year strategic plan which is aimed
at reviving the export-import bank to attain international
standard. This was revealed by its Managing Director Mr Roberts
Orya last week.The
bank\'s strategic plan projection aims
to support the non-oil
export sector in the 5-year funding intervention that will
see it commit N37
billion to non-oil exports in 2011; N41 billion 2012; N50
billion in 2013; N63 billion in 2014 and N94 billion in 2015.
Though NEXIM is supervised
by the federal government agency, it was learnt that the
establishment is not funded by the government. It is solely
funded by its shareholders, who, sources say, are presently
impressed with the performance of the current management.
The managing Director of Nigerian Export-Import Bank, Mr.
Roberts Orya
has lamented
poor patronage of
the nation’s trade policy (NEXIM) by businesses. He complained
that the institution, which is designed
to deepen trade, within the ECOWAS
region is grossly
under-utilized.
He observed that it is shameful that Nigeria which
is the
largest market in the
African continent is managing to survive, with only one trade
policy institution.
He said there are over
N9 billion non-performing accounts inherited by the present
management. He
noted that the bank is
facing some
difficulties, while
trying to recover
the loans due to
poor packaging of
the credits and also because
of the recent financial
crisis, which forced most financial institutions
to fold up.
Established with the mandate to deepen the non-oil sector, the
chief executive officer disclosed that the organization posted a
profit of N190 million,
during the fiscal year 2010 under review. This impressive
result he added was due
to compliance with the corporate governance issue and
curtailment of the deterioration in the bank.
NEXIM was established by Act 38 of 1991 as an Export Credit
Agency (ECA) with a share capital of N50, 000,000,000 (Fifty
Billion Naira) held equally by the Federal Government of Nigeria
and the Central Bank of Nigeria. The Bank which replaced the
Nigerian Export Credit Guarantee & Insurance Corporation earlier
set up under Act 15 of 1988, has the following main statutory
functions:
Provision of export
credit guarantee and export credit insurance facilities to its
clients, provision of credit in local currency to its clients in
support of exports, establishment and management of funds
connected with exports, maintenance of a foreign exchange
revolving fund for lending to exporters who need to import
foreign inputs to facilitate export production, maintenance of a
trade information system in support of export business and
provision of domestic credit insurance where such a facility is
likely to assist exports.
The Bank presently provides short and medium term loans to
Nigerian exporters. It also provides short term guarantees for
loans granted by Nigerian Banks to exporters as well as credit
insurance against political and commercial risks in the event of
non-payment by foreign buyers. The Bank is also the government’s
National Guarantor under the ECOWAS
Inter-state Road transit
programme. The Bank’s authorized capital as at December 31 2008
was N50.0 billion with a fully paid-up portion amounting to
N13.59 billion with an outstanding balance
of N36.41 billion.
The bank funded non-oil exports worth
N10.14 billion in 2010.
The bank also granted risk bearing facilities of about
$27.3 million to three projects during the period.
“In the last four years we have been able to support the non-oil
sector to the tune of N15.04 billion and we have been able to
generate over $200 million”, the chief executive officer said.
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