DBN to mobilise funds for MSMEs
Managing Director, DBN, Tony Okpanachi
The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) is embarking on aggressive mobilisation of low rate and accessible funding to boost the operations and survival of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.
The Managing Director of the bank, Dr Tony Okpanachi, who disclosed this in Abuja, explained that the challenges within the MSME space are quite substantial, especially as it relates to accessing finance since the outbreak of COVID-19.
He stated that with the sporadic growth of MSMEs and their propensity to drive sustainable development, their survival is intrinsically linked to the prosperity of Nigeria.
According to him, the bank will also continue to provide capacity building for MSMEs and technical assistance to its participating financial institutions to strengthen their lending capacity to MSMEs.
Okpanachi added that the DBN will continue to build its internal capacity to drive the growth ambition of the institution and amplify its sustainability drive through the implementation of the institution’s green finance strategy and the Green Climate Fund (GCF) accreditation as a direct access entity.
Okpanachi further highlighted that the bank plans to crowd-in more social and impact funding to build its balance sheet resilience amid the challenging macro and business landscape.
The DBN boss added: “In the medium term, we plan to complete the digital transformation efforts currently underway within the bank and expand our channels of disbursement to MSMEs, which speaks to our drive for increased collaboration with other players within the space. In the long term, our focus is for DBN to be recognised locally and internationally as the foremost institution driving the growth and sustainability of the Nigerian economy through the provision of financing support to MSMEs.”
He maintained that the challenges confronting MSMEs would be hugely addressed if several players who can provide support are mobilized with the DBN ready to offer technical assistance to the financial institutions to augment their capacity to lend to MSMEs.
Okpanachi revealed that the DBN disbursed N334 billion to 135,000 MSMEs between November 2017 and December 2020, which had exceeded N482 billion to more than 208,000 MSMEs by the end of 2021.
