The Bank of Industry (BOI) has granted N767 million loans to 200 co-operative societies.

The bank's zonal manager in Lagos, Mr. Shuabu Ottan, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Thursday that the loans were given out last year.

He said that the bank also gave N4.2 billion as loans to 71 small and medium-scale enterprises in various categories last year.

Ottan said that the loans were part of the efforts of the bank to revive the informal sector and that the bank was collaborating with some international organisations to achieve the objective.

He listed some of the organisations as the African Development Bank and the African Export and Import Bank.

"The bank is set to revive the informal sector and industries generally in Nigeria," he said.

Ottan said that the bank had also given out N102 million working capital to assist nine industries to take off.

He assured that the bank was assisting these industries in the area of capacity building as "it is essential to these industries to stop them from folding up. They are of paramount importance to Nigerian economy."