The Development Bank of Nigeria Plc has announced that it has disbursed over N1tn to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises through 79 participating financial institutions across the country.
The disclosure was made at a media parley with the Managing Director of the bank, Tony Okpanachi, in Lagos, where DBN also revealed that its support reached more than 69,000 MSMEs operating in economically disadvantaged states such as Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Zamfara, and Adamawa.
According to the bank, 74 per cent of the beneficiaries of its financial interventions were women, while 25 per cent were youths. In terms of human capacity development, the bank noted that it had trained more than 9,500 MSMEs across Nigeria.
“The bank’s Technical Assistance Programme has supported 20 participating financial institutions to improve their ability to lend to MSMEs, with over 711,000 MSME beneficiaries recorded. More than 1.2 million jobs have been created through our various interventions since inception,” Okpanachi stated.
He said the bank has received top recognitions, including an “AAA” rating by Agusto & Co. and GCR, as well as accolades such as the Global SME Finance Awards and the World Bank’s Best Project in Nigeria.
He also highlighted that DBN had secured Green Climate Fund accreditation and emerged first in the Transparency and Integrity Index in 2022 and 2023.
Looking ahead, the bank said it plans to grow loans outstanding to N1tn, catalyse two million jobs, support two million MSMEs, and increase green financing loans to N75bn–N100bn over the next five years.
DBN was incorporated on September 19, 2014, and began operations as a wholesale development finance institution on November 1, 2017. Its mission remains to drive sustainable socio-economic development by improving access to finance for Nigeria’s underserved MSMEs.
