DBN Disburses N52bn Loan to Youths in 2019

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) Plc has stated that it disbursed 52 percent of its total loan of N100 billion to youths across the country in 2019 in line with its objective to create jobs.

The bank revealed that in total, it disbursed about N100 billion to over 100,000 Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) as at December 2019. Out of which led to the creation of addition­al 3,192 jobs for Nigerians.

This was made known by the Managing Director, DBN, Mr Tony Okpanachi, at the bank’s third Annual Gen­eral Meeting (AGM), which was held virtually, and the first of its kind, recently in Abuja.

Mr Okpanachi in his ad­dress said the bank through its Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs) had facilitated an increase in MSME revenues, as well as assets in the country in recent time.

He stated that one of the major focuses of DBN was youth empowerment, which was why 52 percent of its loans were disbursed to the youth population in the country.

“Through our 27 Partic­ipating Financial Institu­tions, over N100 billion was dis­bursed last year, impacting cumulatively over 100,000 MSMEs. So far, 3,192 jobs have been created leading to an increase of 10 percent increase in the val­ue of their land assets.

“Also, 52 percent of loans disbursed in 2019 were given to youths and women-owned businesses. This is in our bid to promote economic empowerment and gender equality,” he said.

Further, Mr Okpanachi assured shareholders that the bank was on the right trajectory and focused its strategy on driving sustainable economic growth, stress­ing that it was currently expanding its distribution network to include other non-banking financial in­stitutions while also work­ing on some concessions to PFIs as well as de-risking of SME lending through the subsidiary, ICGL to in­crease participation.

He explained that the strategy would also cover the delivery of technical as­sistance to PFIs and capac­ity building programmes for MSMEs, all according to him, geared towards en­couraging uptake of the DBN funds by PFIs for on lending.

On his part, Mr Shehu Yahaya, Chairman of DBN, in his remarks, commended the Federal Government for its commitment and efforts as well as the selfless health workers for their dedica­tion towards tackling the deadly COVID 19 pandemic.

The virtual AGM was in compliance with Federal Government and National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) directive on social distancing guidelines.

DBN Plc is a wholesale development finance insti­tution, established by the Federal Government of Ni­geria in collaboration with global development partners (The World Bank, AfDB, Kfw, AFD and EIB) to address the major financing challenges facing Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria.

DBN carries out this func­tion by providing financial institutions, predominantly Deposit Money and Microf­inance Banks with on-lend­ing facilities designed to meet the needs of this seg­ment. The bank commenced operations in 2017.