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Development Bank of Nigeria Plc has disclosed that it disbursed N400 billion as loans to 150,000 Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria since its inception in 2017.
The Chief Executive Officer of the bank, Mr Tony Okpanachi, made the disclosure in Abuja on Tuesday at the second DBN annual virtual lecture series themed: ‘Resilient Innovation: MSMEs’ adaptability in Uncertain Times,
According to him, the DBN has successfully lived up to its mandate by providing funds for SMEs.
He said, “As a bank, we have championed this cause through all our three mandates of providing long term financing, capacity building and partial credit guarantees over the years.
“Since commencing operations in 2017, we have disbursed over N400billion in loans to over 150,000 Nigerian SMEs out of which 27 per cent are women owned and 26 per cent newly owned businesses respectively.
This has led to the creation of over 130,000 jobs.
“In the year 2020 alone, the sum of N190billion was disbursed through 19 PFIs out of which N9.8billion was to 6,935 first time borrowers, N5.7billion to 9,066 youths, N11.8billion to 25,171 women owned businesses.
“Cumulatively, 83 per cent reported an increase in their sales after obtaining the loan, while 48 per cent were able to increase their staff strength after receiving the facility.
“Additionally, 125 MSMEs were also trained as part of our capacity building initiative through the DBN Entrepreneurship Training Programme which was held in Abuja and Lagos.”
