By Jennete Ugo Anya
For businesses seeking finance to expand production, purchase equipment or strengthen working capital, the challenge is often not simply whether credit exists. The time, documentation and uncertainty involved in accessing it can determine whether an investment proceeds or is delayed.
The Bank of Industry (BoI) is seeking to address part of this challenge with the launch of MyBOI, a fully digital lending portal designed to simplify the financing process and give businesses greater visibility from application to credit decision.
The platform represents a shift away from a predominantly manual and branch-dependent financing journey towards automated workflows, digital authentication and real-time application tracking.
Managing Director/ Chief Executive of BoI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, said access to finance should be assessed not only by the amount of funding available but also by how efficiently businesses can navigate the process.
“Access to finance is not only about the availability of funding; it is also about making the journey to that funding simpler and more efficient,” Olusi said.
That distinction is particularly relevant for enterprises whose investment decisions depend on timely access to working capital or long-term financing. A viable business can still lose an opportunity if the process of securing finance takes too long or involves uncertainty around the status of an application.
According to Dr. Olusi, MyBOI is intended to address these friction points without compromising the safeguards expected of a development finance institution.
“Through MyBOI Portal, we are using technology to reduce unnecessary friction, improve visibility and give our customers a more seamless way to engage with BoI, while maintaining the security, rigour and developmental purpose for which the Bank is known,” he said.
The portal allows micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), large businesses, cooperatives, associations and other eligible customers to initiate financing applications digitally. Applicants can complete onboarding, undertake impact and sustainability assessments, submit supporting documents and monitor their applications throughout the credit lifecycle.
The significance of the platform therefore goes beyond putting an existing lending process online. BoI says the system is designed to remove bottlenecks that can prevent financing from translating into actual investment, production and employment.
For the bank, digitisation also offers operational benefits. Automated processes can improve data accuracy, reduce unnecessary human intervention, strengthen compliance and support faster decision-making. Enhanced reporting and analytics could further give the institution better visibility into its lending pipeline and customer behaviour.
The bank has attached specific performance objectives to the platform. It aims to increase qualified digital financing application intake by 30 percent within 12 months, reduce front-end application initiation turnaround time by at least 40 per cent within nine months and achieve at least 60 percent self-service adoption for new applications within 12 months.
These targets provide measurable benchmarks for determining whether the digital platform is actually improving access to finance rather than simply changing the channel through which applications are submitted.
The launch followed cybersecurity certification, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) validation, pilot execution and a successful go-live readiness assessment. BoI has also established a digital help desk across its 36 state offices to support customers who may require assistance using the platform.
The move comes as businesses continue to contend with financing pressures and the wider challenge of converting available capital into productive economic activity. For smaller businesses in particular, the efficiency of the financing process can matter almost as much as the availability of the loan itself.
A faster application process, however, does not automatically translate into faster credit approval or greater lending. The ultimate impact of MyBOI will depend on how efficiently applications move through assessment, approval and disbursement, as well as the bank’s ability to maintain credit quality while increasing digital access.
This makes implementation the critical measure for the initiative. If the platform reduces administrative delays while preserving appropriate risk controls, it could improve the experience of businesses seeking development finance and allow BoI to process applications more efficiently.
The bank said the broader objective is to enable businesses to spend less time navigating financing procedures and more time deploying capital towards productive activity.
“With MyBOI Portal, the Bank of Industry is taking a significant step towards a more accessible and digitally enabled financing experience, helping businesses spend less time navigating processes and more time pursuing growth,” the bank said.
The broader economic question is whether improvements in the financing journey can translate into more investment, stronger productive capacity and additional jobs. For MyBOI, its value will ultimately be measured not by the launch of the portal itself, but by the businesses that are able to secure financing, deploy it and expand as a result.
