The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, was full of praise for the Executive Management team of the Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) for the positive turnaround it achieved in its first term.
She was speaking in Abuja on Friday while performing the inauguration of the team for its second and final term.
The team is made up of the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Mr. Abba Bello, Executive Director, Corporate Services Dr. Bala Bello and Executive Director, Business Development, Honourable Stella Okotete.
She recalled the poor state of affairs of the bank at the point of their appointment and first inauguration in 2017 noting that all the negative indicators have turned positive.
She said “I am aware that prior to your appointment, the Bank had been confronted with a myriad of challenges including high volume of non-performing loans, inadequate capitalization, paucity of operational funds and loss of focus on core mandate which limited its performance.”
“It is therefore heartwarming to note that under your stewardship the bank has witnessed a complete turnaround in all areas of its operational and financial indices and is now on the path of growth”, she added.
Continuing, she stated, “For instance, the Bank now has a healthy balance sheet, which has grown from about N63bn in April 2017 to the current level ofN250bn. It has also recovered from a loss position of N8bn in 2016 to sustained profitability, reaching N4.1bn in 2021 , while over N12bn has been recovered in non-performing loans.”
The Minister challenged the team to double its efforts not only to reciprocate the confidence reposed in them by the President in reappointing them but also to enable the country gain a larger export market share and to contribute its own quota to a much more diversified economy.
“Our expectation and hope in the next five years is to see a NEXIM Bank that will take Nigeria to the world in a similar manner with institutions like EXIM China and BNDES of Brazil.
“Accordingly, in the next 5 years, we would like to see a quantum leap in the contribution of the non-oil sector to export revenue to at least 30%”.
She promised that government would be willing to support the bank to achieve this target.
The Management thanked the President for the re-appointment while promising to strive for greater heights.
The re-appointment takes effect from April 21, 2022 even though the inauguration was just conducted on Friday May 20, 2022.