The Development Bank of Nigeria has said that it has exceeded its projected performance in its first year of operations, with a total loan disbursement of N31.36 billion to 35,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Presenting a scorecard of the bank’s performance in its first year of operations over the weekend in Lagos, the Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Tony Okpanachi, said women accounted for 73 per cent of the end-borrowers of the DBN loans and also received 27 per cent of the total amounts disbursed.
Okpanachi explained that the bank’s disbursement target for the year 2019 had increased to N70billion and was expected to help deepen penetration in the MSMEs sector of the economy.
According to him, the bank formally commenced lending operations in October 2017 to its first two Participating Financial Institutions, (Micro Finance Banks).
It said with a strong on-boarding exercise, which it carried out within the year, the bank “currently has a total of 29 Participating Financial Institutions, which include commercial banks at various stages of engagement.”
The DBN was set up as a wholesale development finance institution to provide sustainable financing through eligible Participating Financial Institutions, who would in turn, lend to end-borrowers – Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises – for the development of that segment.
With a vision to be Nigeria’s primary development finance institution; promoting growth and sustainability, DBN seeks to fulfill three key mandates, which include lending activities to MSMEs, Partial Credit Guarantees and Capacity
Building.
