Key points
- The Bank of Industry (BOI) won two major continental awards at the EMEA Finance Achievement Awards.
- BOI received the “Best Sustainability Deal in Africa” for its renewable energy financing under the DARES project.
- The bank won “Best Social Development Deal in Africa” for its flagship women-focused GLOW loan initiative.
- Under its power portfolio, the DFI disbursed N27 billion to eight renewable energy businesses in 2025.
- The supported projects recorded 100 percent financial additionality, confirming the critical role of BOI’s capital.
Main Story
The Bank of Industry (BOI) has solidified its standing as Africa’s premier development finance institution after winning two major honors at the recently concluded EMEA Finance Achievement Awards.
The bank was awarded the Best Sustainability Deal in Africa for its strategic funding under the Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) project. Simultaneously, BOI clinched the Best Social Development Deal in Africa for its flagship Guaranteed Loans for Women (GLOW) initiative. The dual international recognition highlights the institution’s capacity to deploy innovative capital that addresses severe infrastructure gaps while fostering deep social inclusion.
The award-winning DARES initiative is executed by BOI in close collaboration with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) and is backed by a $750 million International Development Association (IDA) credit facility from the World Bank. The framework expands reliable clean energy footprint across off-grid, underserved, and unserved Nigerian communities through the rollout of solar mini-grids.
This program forms a key part of BOI’s expanding utilities portfolio, under which the bank disbursed N27 billion to eight clean-energy companies in 2025. According to its 2025 Annual Development Impact Report, these green energy interventions achieved a flawless 100 percent financial additionality rating, meaning the critical projects would have stalled without BOI’s structural funding.
On the social impact front, the bank’s GLOW program was celebrated for systematically dismantling the financial barriers encountered by female industrialist across Nigeria. By providing tailored low-interest credit lines, stripping away prohibitive collateral constraints, and offering targeted business mentorship, GLOW enables women-led enterprises to scale up operations.
This financial lifeline prepares female entrepreneurs to penetrate competitive regional markets, particularly within the trading windows of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Reacting to the milestone, BOI Managing Director and CEO, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, remarked that the honors validate the bank’s deliberate strategy to build a resilient, green, and economically equitable nation.
The Issues
- Accelerating the draw-down of the $750 million World Bank IDA facility to meet aggressive solar mini-grid deployment timelines.
- Overcoming regional supply chain bottlenecks for imported photovoltaic components to keep localized project costs low.
- Mitigating foreign exchange volatility for women-led businesses scaling up cross-border trade under the AfCFTA framework.
What’s Being Said
- Emphasizing the bank’s structural alignment with modern impact investing goals, the Managing Director/CEO of BOI, Dr. Olasupo Olusi, stated: “These awards reflect the Bank of Industry’s deliberate focus on supporting projects and programmes that deliver measurable economic, social, and environmental outcomes for Nigerians. Whether it is expanding reliable electricity access through renewable energy solutions or empowering women entrepreneurs with affordable finance and growth opportunities, our goal remains building a more inclusive, resilient, and sustainable economy.”
What’s Next
- BOI will scale up its partnership with the REA to flag off the next phase of solar mini-grid installations in northern economic clusters.
- Portfolio managers will open fresh applications for the GLOW fund to target women-owned agro-processing factories in Q3 2026.
- The DFI will present its updated sustainable framework at the upcoming African Development Bank (AfDB) infrastructure summit.
Bottom Line
By securing top EMEA Finance awards for its N27 billion renewable energy interventions and its GLOW female-credit initiative, the Bank of Industry has proven that large-scale development finance can successfully cross-pollinate commercial viability with profound socio-environmental impact.
 has solidified its standing as Africa's premier development finance institution after winning two ...){kind=link}