The Development Bank of Nigeria Plc has launched a ‘Techpreneur Summit’ as part of its efforts to alleviate financial constraints and improve the capacity of small businesses in the country.
Ijeoma Ozulumba, Executive Director, Finance/Corporate Services, DBN, said the Summit is aimed at driving conversation in the technology sector and accelerating its impact on the social-economic development of Nigeria, by creating jobs, improving the lives of people, and scaling up Nigeria’s tech presence globally.
Speaking during the maiden edition, Ozulumba, explained that the initiative will avail tech-based businesses and techie minds the platform to network and interact with investors as well as DBN Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) that can help with finance to actualize or scale up their business.
She emphasized that the Techpreneur Summit underscores the ambition of the Bank since it commenced operations in 2017.
“This underscores where our ambitions lie in creating a favorable space in the ecosystem for tech. The future is hinged on technology, so apart from the global trend, locally we continue to see that technology is now about 18 percent of GDP.
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“ICT is the fastest-growing sector of the economy. Apart from that, technology and digital transformation is not just a megatrend, it underpins all the other megatrends in finance, engineering, and climate action which is topical right now,” she said.
Speaking further, she informed that the Bank has since it started operations in 2017 given out loans to over 180,000 small businesses amounting to over N400b in various sectors of the economy and a lot of that is to tech-based start-ups.
According to her, in 2020, DBN disbursed N190 billion, and 7,000 of those SMEs were accessing funding for the first time. “This shows how important this event is to us, and the commitment of the Bank to alleviating the financing constraints faced by MSMEs.
“Our three-fold mandate is lending, providing partial credit guarantee, and capacity building. The capacity building aspect is why we are having this summit today,” she said.
In his remark, the MD/Co-founder, Trans-Sahara Investment Corporation, Kyari Bukar tasked Nigerian techie minds and techpreneurs on developing knowledge-based local solutions that have a universal appeal and can put Nigerian on the global technology table.
“Technopreneurship is about finding solutions, and the solutions better be local and should also have universal appeal. What is happening globally is that factor-based economics are becoming irrelevant, I don’t mean they are dead, I am saying they are not exciting as they used to be. Today, everybody talks about a knowledge-based economy. The beauty of tech is that it is the number one catalyst in changing the way we do things. An example is the digitalization of the way we conduct business today.
“We need to change our dependence on what we pick or drill from the surface of the earth and believe that will make us wealthy, it is wrong. India is exporting $60b a year in software solutions and services.
“Though Africa is coming late to the party, we can develop unique solutions ourselves. The whole world is watching us and ready to invest in us. Whether the government is there or not, when you have the will to create and sell convenience, all you need are strong believers and support,” he said.
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