Government okays $1.3b takeoff grant for development bank

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved receipt of $1.28billion from ‎four international development organisations including the World Bank to support the takeoff of Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) licensed to operate last week.

DBN was issued licence last week by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) after meeting the minimum capital requirement of N100 billion.Addressing State House correspondents after the FEC meeting yesterday, Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun disclosed that the loans are coming from the World Bank ($500m), the African Development Bank ($450m), KfW Development Bank of Germany ($200m) and the French Development Agency, which is providing a loan of $130million.

Adeosun explained that the loans are being provided at concessional rates and would aid the DBN to disburse long term finances to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country.

Adeosun explained that the requirements including a legal opinion by the Attorney-General of the Federation ‎and an approval by the National Assembly must be sought by the government before the money could be accessed from the four development groups to enable the take off of the bank expected to transform MSME sector in the country.‎

On the worrisome rise of foreign debt status of the country, the Minister of Finance explained that Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio was currently 13 per cent.She said many African countries were floating at about 60 per cent to the GDP while others in the West had a debt profile of 100 per cent to the GDP and above.
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Adeosun, who was joined by the Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire and the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, told newsmen that council also approved the migration of salaries of personnel of the three armed services to the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The minister said FEC awarded contracts worth N‎550million for the procurement of project managers and verification consultants to bring 200,000 of military personnel onto the IPSS platform.