New HQ for BoI in Eko, a misplaced priority

The recent announcement by the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Enoh, that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the design and construction of a new headquarters for the Bank of Industry (BoI) at Eko Atlantic City, Lagos, has raised more questions than any government decision that has attracted public apprehension in recent times.

Enoh said the BoI headquarters project, which received formal approval, was among the five key memoranda of the ministry that were considered by the Council. The minister stated that the new headquarters is expected to serve as a central hub for the BoI’s expanded role in financing industrial growth, small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), and export-oriented manufacturing.

The approval for the award of the contract for this project is one move that the minister’s all-out support for it as “a central hub for the BoI’s expanded role in financing industrial growth, small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs), and export-oriented manufacturing” failed to justify. If this argument of the minister for a new headquarters building for the BoI is to be taken for granted at all, the same reason would also be a good excuse to relocate other development finance institutions (DFIs), such as the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) and the Nigeria Export-Import Bank (NEXIM), to Eko Atlantic City.

Apart from its head office in Marina, Lagos, BoI also has a large office complex on Herbert Macaulay Way, Abuja, in addition to offices in 33 states of the federation. In Lagos alone, it has offices in Ikeja and Lekki. It would also be recalled that the second tower of the Abuja office complex of the BoI was commissioned only in 2022 by the former and late President Muhammadu Buhari, part of which is being leased out to organisations.

The fact that no reports of overstretched facilities at any of the BoI’s large office complexes in Abuja and Lagos exist suggests a motive other than just building a new headquarters in Eko Atlantic City, where a square metre of land is believed to cost between $1,500 and $3,000. By implication, land acquisition alone at this coastal city shall cost hundreds of millions of US dollars. The actual construction of the building, which can only be imagined, would cost billions of naira from Nigeria’s taxpayers’ money.

Meanwhile, Eko Atlantic City, which is privately funded by South Energyx Nigeria Limited, working in strategic partnership with the Lagos State Government and supported by the Federal Government of Nigeria, is a subsidiary of the Nigeria-based Chagoury Group of companies. The Chagoury Group is owned by billionaire Gilbert Chagoury. The group also owns the Hitech Construction Company handling the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road.

With the bank already having twin 12-storey towers in Abuja and a spacious head office in Marina, Lagos, what additional space does it require to function as a financier? Why then build a new headquarters at Eko Atlantic City? BoI functions not as a manufacturing hub but primarily to provide funding for investors. This project is as wasteful as it makes no economic sense to embark on it at a time the informal sector of the economy stands in dire need of interventions to contribute to the national economy and reduce unemployment.

The BoI should be more interested in funding the real sector, not a white elephant project called a new BoI headquarters. The resources available to BoI to fund a new headquarters building could be deployed to finance manufacturing companies, support industrial infrastructure, and strengthen small and medium enterprises.

The BoI emerged from the merger between the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NIDB) and the Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry (NBCI), with an authorised share capital of N50bn, which was increased to N250bn in 2007 and N500bn in 2023. It is described as Nigeria’s oldest, largest, and most successful DFI. It facilitates the transformation of Nigeria’s industrial sector by providing financial and advisory support for the establishment of large, medium, and small enterprises, as well as the expansion, diversification, rehabilitation, and modernisation of existing ones.

The bank supports growth across various sectors, including agro and food processing, creative industries, engineering and technology, healthcare and petrochemicals, oil and gas, renewable energy, and solid minerals, leveraging its 33 state offices nationwide.

Although Eko Atlantic City, built on Victoria Island, is defined as a destination for investors capitalising on rich development growth based on massive demand and as a gateway to emerging markets on the continent, this is not enough justification to warrant the building of a new BoI headquarters in any part of the country.

At the moment, the BoI has more than enough offices to guarantee its operations. To embark on a capital-intensive project such as the construction of a new BoI headquarters at a time when citizens are complaining bitterly of poor roads, a failed healthcare delivery system, limited access to potable drinking water, and a near-collapsed education system negates the essential ideals of good governance. To plan this project, for whatever ulterior motive, under the guise of a new headquarters building, is a most misplaced priority of the government. The idea should be discarded completely and immediately.

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