DBN partners Wema in N763m small business funding

The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), has partnered with Wema Bank, to fund small businesses in order to improve their access to cheaper funds.Wema through this partnership hopes to improve access of MSMEs and commercial businesses of all business segments to funds up to N153million and N610million respectively.

The bank through a statement, said that it has prioritized support for small businesses and is currently pushing for new realities for MSME’s in Nigeria, adding that this has made the bank the first commercial bank to disburse DBN loans, which was made available to both new and existing business customers.

The bank stated that its partnership with DBN, will change the narrative of poor access to cheap funding which continues to limit the ability of small businesses in Nigeria to scale up adequately, by making it a thing of the past.

The bank also disclosed, that a similar arrangement, exists between the Bank of Industry (BoI) and Wema in order to further enhance funding for MSME’s in the service, and manufacturing sectors, the agriculture value chain and traders of locally made goods at affordable rates.

The bank has recently, secured $35 million from the African Development Bank (ADB) and the Islamic Corporation for Development (ICD) to fund MSME’s across the country and is bringing businesses together for capacity building programmes, designed to enhance structuring and to spur growth.