By Ahmed Rahma
Close to 100,000 business owners in the Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) sector of the economy in Nigeria have received loans worth N150 billion from the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN).
The loan was disbursed to the beneficiaries since the lender commenced operations in 2017, the federal government disclosed, adding that the funds were shared through 27 participating financial institutions.
The central government, in a post on Twitter, a social media platform, stated further that about 52 per cent of loans by the bank in 2019 were allocated to businesses owned by youth and women.
“DYK (do you know that) 52 per cent of loans disbursed by @DevBankNG in 2019 were to youths and women-owned businesses?
“Since 2017, the bank has disbursed more than N150 billion through 27 Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), impacting close to 100,000 MSMEs,” the tweet from the national government disclosed.
DBN, which was established by the FG in collaboration with global development partners to address the major financing challenges MSMEs in Nigeria, carries out this function by providing financial institutions, predominantly Deposit-Money and Microfinance Banks with funding facilities designed to meet the needs of MSMEs
The bank has also been leading an initiative on capacity building for SMEs to equip them with required skills to improve their competence in developing and defending a viable business plan, improve their capacity to access funding, as well as efficient utilization of the funds.
Last month, the bank said it trained not less than 125 entrepreneurs in Lagos and Abuja in its second capacity building workshop.
In the first training scheme held in 2019, a total of 100 small business owners from the 6 geographical zones of the country were empowered in Abuja and Lagos.
The event was put in place to improve the skills of entrepreneurs in developing and defending a viable business plan, improve their capacity to access funding, as well as imbibe in them the discipline required for efficient utilization of their funds.
