For Nigerian manufacturers, the real story behind the Bank of Industry’s (BOI) N250 billion bond is not simply that investors bought it. The bigger question is whether the money will eventually make long-term credit cheaper and easier to access.
BOI’s maiden N250 billion Series 1 Fixed Rate Bond, issued through BOI Financing SPV Plc under its $1 billion Multi-Currency Instruments Programme, was oversubscribed within five working days. The offer opened on August 5 and closed on August 11, 2026. The five-year bond was priced at a yield of 17.35% to 17.50%, with semi-annual coupon payments and a two-year principal moratorium before amortising repayments begin. Chapel Hill Denham acted as lead issuing house.
The investor base included pension fund administrators, commercial banks, development finance institutions, corporates and other institutional investors. The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) also participated as anchor investors, according to BOI.
BOI Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Olasupo Olusi, said the strong demand showed that Nigeria’s domestic capital market could mobilise long-term funding for productive investment. He also credited President Bola Tinubu’s executive approvals for incentives that helped attract investors.
More importantly for manufacturers, Olusi said a N100 billion fund approved for BOI by the President would be used to support the bond’s pricing and cushion borrowing costs for manufacturers and other BOI beneficiaries.
That matters because borrowing remains expensive. MAN said in June that prime lending rates averaged about 27%, while maximum lending rates reached 36.5%, describing borrowing costs as exploitatively high for manufacturers.
CBN data, however, show some improvement since then. The average maximum lending rate fell to 33.16% in June from 34.78% in May, according to the central bank’s Money Market Indicators. The CBN has also retained its Monetary Policy Rate at 26.5%, most recently in July.
Still, the bond does not automatically mean cheap loans. BOI said its proceeds will expand long-term financing for businesses in priority sectors, supporting industrial growth, jobs and local value addition. Final subscription and allotment figures will be released after regulatory approval, the bank said.
That leaves the most important test ahead: who gets the money, at what interest rate, under what conditions and how quickly?
The N250 billion bond is a strong start. Its real success, however, will be measured not by how much investors subscribed, but by how much productive capacity, employment and affordable financing it creates across Nigeria.
