Latest news with #CANEX
Broadcast Pro
14-05-2025
- Business
- Broadcast Pro
Afreximbank and FEDA launch $1bn Africa Film Fund
The fund aims to boost production and global distribution of quality African films and TV, enhancing the continent's cultural impact worldwide. The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), through its impact investment subsidiary, the Fund for Export-Development in Africa (FEDA), has announced the establishment of the Africa Film Fund, a landmark initiative set to reshape the future of filmmaking and the broader creative sector across the African continent. Launched under the Bank's Creative Africa Nexus (CANEX) programme, the fund represents a transformative commitment of up to $1bn to stimulate the growth of Africa's film and audiovisual industries. Professor Benedict Oramah, President of Afreximbank and Chairman of the Boards of both Afreximbank and FEDA, emphasised the strategic importance of this initiative, describing film as a foundational pillar of the CANEX programme. He noted that while Africa's creative sector has expanded rapidly in recent years, it continues to face persistent challenges, including limited funding, difficulty scaling productions, and restricted access to international markets. The Africa Film Fund, he explained, aims to close these gaps and enable African creators to achieve global reach. Oramah added that the Fund will work in tandem with complementary efforts such as the CANEX Shorts Awards to elevate diverse African narratives. These initiatives, he said, reflect Afreximbank's broader vision to harness the power of culture as an economic engine and a tool for global influence. The Africa Film Fund was first proposed during the CANEX Weekend 2024 in Algiers, where Afreximbank pledged to create a private equity vehicle via FEDA to support film production and distribution across the continent. The Fund will serve as a critical lever to boost both the quality and reach of African film and television projects, helping to export Global Africa's cultural identity while drawing essential investment into the sector. According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the African film and audiovisual industry already contributes an estimated $bn in annual revenue and employs more than 5m people. Yet the sector faces notable structural obstacles, including limited access to production and post-production facilities, a dearth of exhibition venues—with fewer than 2,000 cinema screens continent-wide—and inadequate availability of digital distribution platforms. The Africa Film Fund is designed to address these issues comprehensively, not only by providing capital but also by nurturing an enabling ecosystem for creators. Marlene Ngoyi, CEO of FEDA, highlighted the Fund's broader mission, stating that the initiative is about more than just financing—it's about empowering African talent, fostering cultural exchange, and driving sustainable economic transformation. She emphasised FEDA's commitment to ensuring that the Fund yields long-term, inclusive benefits across the creative landscape. Kanayo Awani, Executive Vice-President of Intra-African Trade and Export Development at Afreximbank, reinforced this sentiment, noting that the Fund offers African storytellers access to the tools, platforms, and visibility necessary to share their narratives on the global stage. For Awani, the creative economy is a strategic asset—one that contributes not only to cultural expression but also to youth empowerment, economic resilience, and regional integration. The announcement has drawn enthusiastic support from influential figures in the global entertainment industry. Viola Davis, EGOT-winning actress and co-founder of JVL Media LLC, praised the initiative for giving voice to Africa's rich storytelling tradition. 'African stories are deeply human and universally powerful,' Davis said. 'This Fund is an invitation to the world to see Africa through the lens of its own creators—bold, unfiltered, and rich in truth.' Boris Kodjoe, acclaimed actor and Managing Partner of FC Media Group, also expressed his excitement about the Fund, calling it the realisation of a long-held dream to produce global stories rooted in African experiences. Kodjoe welcomed the partnership with Afreximbank and FEDA as a vital step toward developing high-quality, internationally resonant content. With this bold investment in the future of African cinema, Afreximbank and FEDA are positioning the continent's creative industries at the centre of a new cultural and economic renaissance—one driven by authentic African voices and stories with universal appeal.
Zawya
24-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Nigeria: Demand for BOI's services has never been higher
The Bank of Industry (BOI) Ltd is Nigeria's oldest and largest de- velopment financing institution. It was originally incorporated in 1959 as the Investment Company of Nigeria (ICON) Ltd and later transformed into the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) in 1964 under the guidance of the World Bank. Its initial equity was largely held by the International Finance Corporation, alongside other domestic and foreign investors. In 2001, the bank underwent a major transformation, merging the mandates of NIDB, the Nigeria Bank for Commerce and Industry, and the National Economic Reconstruction Fund to become the Bank of Industry as it is today. Since then, it has steadily grown, with its authorised share capital increasing from N50bn to N500bn to better execute its mandate, to support the industrial sector by providing financial assistance to large, medium, and small enterprises in the sphere. In 2023, the bank had tier- one capital of $640m, with over $4bn of assets and profits of $114m. The bank has become an even more critical player in the Nigerian economy as the country undergoes the necessary but painful reforms initiated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu since he took office in 2023. One of the reforms has been a change in the remit of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which has moved away from the development finance function that it had played previously. This means, accord- ing to Dr Olasupo Olusi, BOI's managing director, who took office in November 2023, that there is even more demand for the type of financing that BOI provides. 'The pressure has now moved to de- velopment finance institutions like BOI, to step up to the plate and fill that gap for long-term funding at low interest rates,' he told me in a conversation on the side- lines of the Creative Africa Nexus Weekend in Algiers. For borrowers, BOI's rate of 9-12% compares favourably with commercial rates that are currently available, which can be north of 30%. 'We have seen hundreds of billions of naira-worth of applications, much more than we have ever seen,' Olusi reports. The bank's loans, which also have a longer tenure than typical commercial facilities, are extended to all areas across the industrial sector. 'We provide loans to the agribusiness sector, though not for production itself [that is farmers]. We also field applica- tions from manufacturing, digital busi- nesses, aviation, infrastructure, climate and sustainability projects and also from the extractive business, as well.' From all these sectors, Olusi says, there has been an increase in the demand for the long-term, low interest money from BOI. Boosting the creative sector The bank is supporting Nigeria's burgeon- ing creative sector, which is why Olusi was at CANEX, a gathering of the continent's creative heavyweights underwritten by the African Export-Import Bank. 'It's one of the sectors that has been identified as capable of driving growth and job creation in Nigeria,' he says, not- ing the entrepreneurial spirit of the na- tion's economy, which is heavily driven by young people in startups and innova- tive firms and which has seen significant expansion, especially in film and music. 'If you look at Nigeria's footprint now in film, music, globally, it has increased significantly over the years.' BOI has extended a supporting hand to the sector, with a number of very im- portant projects, such as the establish- ment of a film fund and other creative economy initiatives. A significant project is the $640m Investment in Digital and Creative Economy Project (IDICE), sup- ported by the African Development Bank, Agence Française de Développement, the Islamic Development Bank, and the Nige- rian government. 'This initiative is really to catalyse the development of the creative economy, as well as the digital economy, tech and others,' he says. Returning to day-to-day banking, he says that despite a growing loan book, the bank's non-performing loans are well within the industry margin. 'Our NPL is still around 2% and that's a very good thing, given the fact that the expected benchmark from the Central Bank is about 5%.' He credits this to the bank's robust risk management protocols. 'We manage our risks very effectively, using either a legal model for the small loans or a commercial bank guarantee for larger ones. That has helped us to insulate our loan book from many risks of defaults from the private sector side.' He says the increased demand for fi- nancial products is evidence that the un- derlying fundamentals of the Nigerian economy remain strong, despite the ap- parent headwinds. 'We've seen massive investments in very significant projects in infrastructure, power, manufacturing and across all the various sectors of the Nige- rian economy. That is very encouraging. It tells you that there's a strong appetite for investment. There's a strong appetite for Nigeria and there's a strong outlook for economic growth.' Taking on a catalytic role How does he see the role of development finance institutions (DFIs) now that gov- ernments are cash-strapped and fis- cally constrained? Olusi believes that they need to play a catalytic role to bring in more finance – and work with commercial banks to reduce the cost of credit for busi- nesses. 'We will also continue to work with commercial banks because they are a very im- portant component in the work that we do to support the private sector. They have a role to play in the risk mitigation of our loan book. And they also have a role to play in the monitoring and evaluation of the success of many of the projects that we invest in.' The relationship between BOI and Nigeria's commercial banks, he says, is very much sym- biotic and he believes the commercial banks are doing their bit to support the country's MSMEs, which account for vast swathes of the country's economy. He ar- gues that Nigeria's commercial banks are working within their risk limitations and continue to provide funding that supports the economy. The federal government commitment to the sector is equally important. It has set up a N200bn ($120m) fund to support micro enterprises and SMEs. 'So there's a lot going on for the MSME segment in the Nigerian economy,' Olusi points out. Olusi clarifies that growing demand from the market is responsible for the expanding loan book, rather than explicit instructions from the federal government or the Central Bank. The Central Bank, however, is committed to supporting DFIs to meet the gap in the market created by its own withdrawal from that space, and is exploring various instruments to capacitate and strengthen Nigerian DFIs. BOI itself has been making efforts to boost its capital, with a successful Eu- robond issue. Olusi says the bank is in the second phase of a global syndication, which is set to conclude soon. 'The first phase, the senior phase, ended recently, and we were able to raise about €1.425bn,' he reveals, adding that this was closed around three to four weeks ago. The bank, he says, has a solid plan to continue engaging in global syndications, collaborating with DFIs such as the AfDB to secure long-term loans for deployment into the Nigerian economy. The successful issue is reflective of interest that the bank is getting, result- ing in rates that, while he will not share the details, were 'significantly reduced due to the African Finance Corporation and central bank guarantees around it.' The bank is attracting investments from at least 60 relationship banks from regions such as the Middle East, Europe, the Far East, China, and India. 'We have a very well-diversified portfolio of investors globally,' he says, adding that 'our recent syndication saw nearly a 70% oversub- scription, which is certainly good news for us and demonstrates strong investor confidence in the Bank of Industry and the Nigerian economy.' With such responses, Olusi is sanguine about the prospects for the bank and the Nigerian economy, but is clear about the work that needs to be done. 'We will con- tinue to be strategic,' he says, noting that BOI has identified six critical thematic areas for investment: youth and skills, climate and sustainability, gender, in- frastructure, digital transformation and technology, and MSMEs. 'We need to upscale our investments in those six the- matic areas, which are very, very important for the Nige- rian economy going forward. This is why we have gone out globally to raise the resources we need to ensure that pri- vate enterprises in those sec- tors are going to thrive,' he notes. The Bank of Industry, Nigeria's oldest DFI, has managed to renew itself over the decades by adapt- ing to changing conditions while remaining faithful to its founding principles. It can confidently look forward to serving the nation over the coming decades. ■ © Copyright IC Publications 2022 Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
