The Development Bank of Nigeria Plc has disbursed over N1 trillion to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises through 79 participating financial institutions across Nigeria.
DBN recently revealed that its support reached over 69,000 MSMEs operating in economically disadvantaged states like Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Zamfara, and Adamawa.
Speaking at a media parley, the Managing Director of the bank, Tony Okpanachi, said that 74 per cent of the beneficiaries of its financial interventions were females, while 25 per cent were young Nigerians.
According to him, the bank has received top recognitions from Agusto & Co. and GCR, as well as major accolades like the Global SME Finance Awards and the World Bank’s Best Project in Nigeria, therefore, their projects are undeniably impactful.
He revealed that when it comes to human capacity development, the Development Bank of Nigeria deserves commendation for training more than 9,500 MSMEs across the nation.
“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,” he said.
Also highlighting how DBN recently secured Green Climate Fund accreditation and emerged first in the Transparency and Integrity Index in 2022 and 2023, he disclosed that the bank aims to grow loans outstanding to N1tn, catalyse two million jobs, aid two million MSMEs, and boost green financing loans to N75bn–N100bn before 2030.
DBN was incorporated on September 19, 2014, and started operations as a wholesale development finance institution on November 1, 2017. Its purpose remains to drive sustainable socio-economic development by enhancing access to finance for Nigeria’s underserved MSMEs.
