BACKGROUND
Upon assumption of office of the current Executive Management led by the MD/CE, Mr. Abba Bello, on 2nd May, 2017, the new Management developed a new Strategic Plan (2018 – 2022) that was articulated towards improving operational performance, achieving the Bank’s mandate and contributing towards meeting the objectives of the Federal Government of Nigeria under the Economic Recovery & Growth Plan.
Plan is currently in its 5th year of operations and has contributed to the significant turnaround of the operational performance of the Bank. Unlike the trend in the past, the Bank has also engaged significantly with stakeholders, with improved relationship, manifesting in collaborative efforts towards policy intervention and increased focus on the non-oil export sector.
It is pertinent to note that following the professional manner in which the Bank was managed and the stellar performance over the last four years, the appointment of the current executive management was renewed for a second term of 5years with effect from April 21, 2022. Aside the MD/CE, other executive members include Dr. Bala Bello, Executive Director, Corporate Services and Honorable Stella Okotete, Executive Director, Business Development.
The performance of the Bank over the last five years are discussed as follows:
KEY COLLABORATIONS
Some of the collaborative partnerships include:
# Membership of the National Committee on Export Promotion, established by the National Economic Council under the Chairmanship of the Executive Governor of Jigawa State, to promote the Zero Oil Plan of the Federal Government.
# Partnership with the Office of the VP to organise the Nationwide MSME Clinic, including establishment of One Stop Shops & Shared Facility Centers to enhance the contribution of SMEs to national development.
# Membership of the Export Facilitation Sub-Committee of the Bankers’ Committee, constituted to boost funding intervention to selected exportable commodities.
# Collaborations with other government Agencies, including the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), the Small & Medium Enterprises Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) to support the rapid expansion and growth of the non-oil export sector through various capacity building programmes and other initiatives.
OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE
# Growth in the Bank’s balance sheet from N67.73bn in April 2017 to N228.93bn in July 2022. With continued positive performance, increased strategic partnerships for lines of credit and the push for recapitalization of the Bank, the target is to achieve a significant increase in Balance Sheet size in line with growing export opportunities, particularly in view of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement. (AfCFTA).
#Achieved a profit of N1.09bn in 2018, N2.13bn in 2019, N1.28bn in 2020 and N4.10bn in 2021, after a loss of N567million in 2017 and a bigger loss of N8.03bn in 2016. The profit decline in 2020 was due to the impact of Covid-19 on businesses, which necessitated the interest rebate and moratorium extension granted by the Bank to its customers.
# Introduction of aggressive debt recovery and proactive loan work out measures leading to increase in overall recoveries from only N200m in December 2016 to N11.35bn and US$4.00mn between January 2017 and July 2022. In addition, assets worth about N7bn are currently up for sale.
# Continued efforts to clean up the balance sheet and improvement in risk management practices with new loans granted from 2018 performing 100%, a major departure from the huge non-performing loans in the past.
# Enhanced operating model through restructuring of Regional Offices for the Bank to maintain presence in each geo-political zone of the country for better market penetration and nationwide coverage.
MANAGEMENT OF INTERVENTION FUNDS
Export Development Fund
Following effective stakeholder engagements and the high level of confidence in the current management, the Central Bank of Nigeria released N50bn to the Bank in February 2018 to implement the Export Development Programme. The Fund was further enhanced to N150bn in May 2022 following effective utilisation.
Non-Oil Export Stimulation Facility
The Bank is also collaborating with the Central Bank of Nigeria to manage the N500bn Non-Oil Export Stimulation Facility, which has been introduced to provide long term funds to export oriented projects towards increasing value added exports.
The Pandemic Trade Impact Mitigation Facility (PATIMFA)
The Bank secured $25m from Afreximbank under the PATIMFA programme, which was launched to alleviate the economic and business impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Nigerian businesses.
The facility is available for continuous funding of exporters, particularly SMEs, many of whom were adversely impacted by the disruptions of the global value chain and other fallouts of the Covid 19 Pandemic.
NEXIM’S FUNDING INTERVENTION
Activities of the Bank under the Export Development Fund (EDF) has led to:
ü The Receipt and processing of 512 Applications worth N542.19billion and US$47.39mn, out of which N229.75bn has been approved to 180 beneficiaries
.ü N186.52bn has been disbursed to 128 beneficiaries, while 52 approvals totaling N43.23bn were undergoing pre-disbursement process.
ü So far, $617.61m and €9.45m, translating into N225.94bn, have been received as export proceeds from projects that have repatriated their income, while others are yet to complete the transaction circle.
ü Many of the institutions supported now feature on the list of top 100 exporters published annually by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
SPECIAL INTERVENTION SCHEMES
In furtherance of the Federal Government’s objectives of creating jobs, reducing unemployment and promoting financial inclusion, the Bank has launched special intervention programmes/enhanced its operating structure as follows:
ü SME desk: created to support SME exporters under more favorable terms and conditions
ü Women and Youth Export Fund: established to provide credit assistance to industries dominated by women or women owned businesses towards achieving the objectives of sustainable development goals
ü Project Preparation Fund: Launched in partnership with Afreximbank to support project preparation phase of a project life cycle towards increasing pipeline of bankable projects.
INTRA-AFRICA TRADE INITIATIVES
As part of our trade facilitation role and towards enhancing Nigeria’s readiness under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), the Bank is spearheading the following initiatives
ü The Sealink Project: aimed at fostering regional trade connectivity and facilitating inland waterways operations to support hinterland trade and bulk commodities exports, especially of solid minerals. In this regard, the Nigerian Navy and the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), have completed segment 1 of the joint survey and navigational charting activities covering Benue-Onitsha and will complete the Segment 2 of the exercise, which covers Onitsha-Burutu by May 2022, following which the pilot scheme of the Sealink project will commence by Q4.
ü Inter-State Road Transit Scheme: designed to facilitate the transportation of goods by road across Customs territories free of duties, taxes, and restrictions while in transit in line with ECOWAS protocol. NEXIM is the National Guarantor under the scheme whose role is to issue insurance bond to mitigate the risk of diversion.
ü Factoring Services: being promoted to engender financial inclusion and provide alternative trade financing support for MSMEs.
HIGHLIGHTS OF IMPACT PROJECTS
NEXIM is the Export Development Bank of Nigeria and in this role, the Bank serves to develop key exportable commodities, unlock opportunities and derisk key non-oil export sector to facilitate investments, towards achieving the diversification objectives of the federal government of Nigeria.
Over the last three years, the Bank has operated under the philosophy of Produce, Add Value and Export (PAVE) to change the current narrative of the dominance of primary products in our export basket. Hence, in addition to supporting start up projects, a lot of emphasis was also placed on providing working capital to resuscitate many industrial projects, which have hitherto become moribund or operated below capacity towards boosting our value-added exports and enhancing jobs creations. Some of the projects include:
ü Ladgroup Limited was funded for the production and export of shea butter.
ü Vertex Agro Limited was funded for the production and export sesame seed and cashew.
ü Globus Enterprises Ltd, GB Tannery and Gods Little Tannery Ltd are some of the other tanneries also supported.
ü Dutse financed for the processing of solid minerals for export.
ü Plantation Industries Limited was funded to produce cocoa for export.
ü Woodland Nigeria Limited was funded for production of wood and timber for export.
ü Palladium Mining limited (PML) for mining, processing, and export of base metal minerals.
ü Huxley Industries Limited was funded to export cashew to India.
ü Bel Papyrus Limited was granted facility to support its strategic expansion exercise to boost the export of Jumbo toilet Rolls and other paper products.
ü Faku Agro Allied Limited was supported with equipment financing for the procurement of a Shea Butter processing factory with a capacity of 200 tonnes per day towards production for export.
ü Salid Agriculture Nigeria Limited was supported with equipment financing for the procurement of a 100 tonnes per day Shea Butter processing plant and trading facility to complement the company’s existing commercial trading activities and export of value added product.
ü Colossus Investments Limited was funded to facilitate exports of Cashew Nuts and Cocoa Beans.
ü Alfa Systems and Commodity Company Limited was funded to facilitate exports of Cocoa Beans, Cocoa Butter, and Cocoa Cake.
ü Armajaro Nigeria Limited was supported by the bank to facilitate export of various Agricultural commodities, including Cocoa Beans, Cashew Nuts, Ginger, Sesame Seeds and Tumeric.
ü Starlink Global Ideal Limited was supported to facilitate the export of Cocoa Beans and Cashew Nuts to Europe.
ü Others: Besides being a major advocate of value-added exports, the Bank also supports the export of raw materials, particularly where the local industries cannot fully absorb production or where production capacity can be expanded. Hence the Bank has also provided working capital to support many companies engaged in cleaning and export of various agricultural commodities and other products. Such commodities include hibiscus flower, dried ginger, sesame seeds, gum arabic and charcoal, which were exported to various parts of the world.
