From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse
Jigawa State Governor, Malam Umar Namadi, on Tuesday ended 13 years of inaction between the Jigawa State Government and the Bank of Industry (BOI) by signing a N6 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the bank.
Governor Namadi described the day as historic for Jigawa citizens, stating that the effort will bring more development to the state by facilitating access to soft loans for medium and small-scale businesses. He noted that empowering people through their own businesses is a strategy adopted by his government to accelerate growth and development, and that the Bank of Industry is a key partner in achieving this effort.
The Governor expressed his happiness at the establishment of a BOI branch in the state, which will enable citizens to access opportunities in the bank. “We are very happy today that we have BOI branch in our state, while all relevant state government agencies are fully engaged for enlightening Jigawa citizens and supporting them to access the opportunities in the bank,” Governor Namadi stated.
While making his remarks, the Executive Director of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Bank of Industry, Alhaji Shekarau Umar, said the N6 billion MOU signed with the Jigawa State Government is the biggest MOU signed with any state government in the history of the bank. He revealed that in the last 13 years, they had been writing letters and paying advocacy for the establishment of a branch in Jigawa State but got no positive response. However, within six months of engagement with Governor Umar Namadi, the BOI’s dreams became a reality.
Shekarau commended Governor Namadi for being a man of his words and his indefatigable commitment to empowering Jigawa people for achieving poverty eradication, jobs creation, growth, and sustainable development.
“As we sign this MOU and also commission our Dutse branch today, we assure Jigawa State Government of our commitment to work at any level for achieving the desired goals,” Umar said.
