How NEXIM Bank created 12000 jobs, remained profitable in 5 years – Abba Bello
Oru Leonard
The Nigerian Export-Import Bank, NEXIM, has since 2019 created 12000 jobs and made over N6 billion as at 2022.
Abba Bello, managing director of NEXIM Bank told Realnews in an exclusive interview in Abuja that this was possible through financing of exports and their value chains through low interest loans and through a combination of recoveries, new facilities as well as treasury activities.
He explained that through hard work and diligence along with his management team, NEXIM, which in 2016 had 94 per cent non-performing loans with a loss of N8 billion was able to hit a profit of N6 billion.
He said that through deliberate efforts of getting the businesses that are into exports, they were able to deepen their businesses by providing funds or replacing their funds from those of commercial banks that lent at 26 or 28%.
Bello stated that although profitability is not the major focus of the bank, yet it must continue to be profitable for it to be sustained.
“We are measured on development and impact on foreign exchange because that’s our number one development responsibility to boost trade out of Nigeria, thereby generating foreign exchange for the country.
“When we came here to the bank, the whole balance sheet was about N63 billion, which is small as at then for a 26-year-old bank. But as we’re speaking now, we’ve taken that balance sheet to somewhere around N230 billion.
“The intervention of the central bank, other sources of funds that we got into the bank from the NCDMB, whose facilities we’re partly managing; there is AFREXIM BANK, African Development Bank, AFDB, other export credit agencies, ECAs, around the world that we partner with in funding trade between our countries, respectively. So you very well know that banking is a thing of confidence. Despite the fact that our ratios have not been the best up till now because of the legacy issues when you look at our performance, you see consistent improvement on all lines, from the size of the balance sheet to profitability to the health of the balance sheet itself to things like non-performing loans and so on.
“But I must tell you the truth, from 2017 till date, all the loans were booked at 99% performance, that’s despite the fact that during the period we had COVID-19; we had a recession twice. But at the same time, the loans have not degenerated to the level of non-performance and that’s because we put all the levers in place to ensure that even when there’s a failure, there are things we can do with the customers to ensure that the loans did not go bad.
“They have suppliers and by definition of what an exporter is, being whom we can finance, we can also finance the value chain. So if company X supplies cocoa to Starlink, we can finance them, they’re indirect exporters. So by getting strong names, you’re strengthening your reputation. You’re also getting into the value chain of what they’re doing and along the value chain, you can also find the smaller SMEs that are supplying them
“That’s how we have impacted exports and of course, in addition to the creation of foreign exchange and employment, we monitor how much the loans we give have generated employment and I think since 2019, we are somewhere around 12000 jobs created. It’s the report I get all the time,” he added.
(REALNEWS)
