By Onu Okorie

Bank of Industry has linked the rapid oversubscription of its N250 billion Series 1 Fixed Rate Bond to investor confidence in the Nigerian economy and incentives approved by President Bola Tinubu. The disclosure was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.
The bond, issued through BOI Financing SPV Plc under the bank’s $1 billion Multi-Currency Instruments Programme, was oversubscribed within five working days, in what the development finance institution described as a significant boost for Nigeria’s domestic capital market.
BOI Chief Executive Officer, Olasupo Olusi, said the strong demand reflected growing confidence in the bank’s ability to mobilise long-term funding for productive investment.
He attributed the scale and speed of the response partly to incentives approved by President Tinubu to encourage participation in the transaction.
According to Olusi, the presidential support provided leverage and sent a positive signal to institutional investors, helping to strengthen demand for the bond.
The BOI chief executive also disclosed that a separate N100 billion fund approved by the President would be deployed to blend the cost of the bond and cushion the effect of high interest rates on manufacturers and other customers of the bank.
He said the intervention would enable BOI to translate the strong investor appetite into more affordable long-term financing for businesses across priority sectors.
“The strength of the investor response is a vote of confidence not only in BOI, but also in the capacity of Nigeria’s domestic capital market to mobilise long-term capital for productive investment,” Olusi said.
The bank said proceeds from the bond would expand its capacity to finance eligible enterprises, with a focus on productive capacity, local value addition, employment generation and economic diversification.
It added that the transaction represented a broadening of its funding base, complementing its established presence in international capital markets with increased mobilisation of long-term domestic institutional funds.
The successful issuance, BOI said, also demonstrated the growing ability of Nigeria’s domestic capital market to channel institutional savings into productive economic activities.
However, the bank and its transaction advisers said final subscription and allotment figures would not be released yet because the final allotment remains subject to approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Rather than the final figures, BOI said the immediate significance of the transaction lay in the strength of investor demand, the pricing achieved and the diversity of investors attracted to the offer.
The bank said these factors indicated sustained institutional appetite for high-quality, long-term naira-denominated assets.
The development finance institution described the transaction as another milestone in efforts to deepen Nigeria’s domestic market for long-term development capital, while reinforcing BOI’s standing as a credible and repeat issuer in the capital market.