In its first year of operations, the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) is planning to disburse N70 billion loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in 2019.
This is coming as the bank exceeded its projected performance with a total loan disbursement of N31.36 billion to 35,000 MSMEs.
Tony Okpanachi, managing director, disclosed this Thursday, while presenting a scorecard of the bank’s performance in its first year of operations to the media in Lagos.
Okpanachi stated that the DBN formally commenced lending operations in October 2017 to its first two Participating Financial Institutions, (Micro Finance Banks) but with a strong on-boarding exercise it carried out within the year, the bank currently has a total of 29 Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), which includes commercial banks at various stages of engagement.
“Our total disbursement-to-date stands at N31.364 billion thus exceeding our year end projection of N30 billion. Total number of end borrowers stands at 35, 000 which also exceeded our year-end target of 20,000 MSMEs.
“Women accounted for 73 percent of the end-borrowers of the DBN loans and received 27 percent of the total amounts disbursed,” he said.
Spurred by the achievements attained in its first year of operations, Okpanachi indicated that the bank’s disbursement target for the year 2019 has increased to N70 billion and is expected to help deepen the bank’s penetration in the MSMEs sector of the economy.
As a proof of the bank’s professionalism, the DBN helmsman also noted the bank has been recommended for various ISO certifications such as Information Security- ISO 27001; Business Continuity ISO 22301 and IT Service Management ISO 20000.
The DBN was set up as a wholesale development finance institution (DFI) to provide sustainable financing through eligible PFIs, who would in turn, lend to end-borrowers – MSMEs for the development of that segment.
With a vision to be Nigeria’s primary development finance institution; promoting growth and sustainability, DBN seeks to fulfil three key mandates which includes, Lending activities to MSMEs, Partial Credit Guarantees and Capacity Building.
