By Modupe Gbadeyanka
Business owners in the Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country have been assured of sustainable financing by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN).
The lender said adequate attention would be given to operators in the sector because of the critical role they play in the nation’s economy.
The Managing Director of DBN, Mr Tony Okpanachi, while speaking at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company in Abuja, further stated that businesses owned by women and youths would also get consideration in the disbursement of funds as so far, they have received 65 per cent of the disbursements.
“Our cumulative disbursement of N482 billion especially to women-owned or managed businesses; is something that we are particularly delighted about from the perspective of women empowerment and poverty alleviation,” he said at the meeting.
Commenting on the performance of the firm last year, he stated that “We continued to focus and deliver on our mandate of providing access to finance through our PFIs (participating financial institutions) to Nigeria’s most critical, but underserved MSMEs building their capacity and that of the PFIs in addition to the provision of partial credit guarantee to encourage lending to this very important sub-sector of the economy.”
Last year, DBN, according to Mr Okpanachi, performed better because of its robust corporate governance framework, business model as well as its top-notch enterprise risk management coupled with a highly committed board of directors, management and staff.
According to him, these supported the increase of the lender’s gross earnings to N38.18 billion as the pre-tax profit increased by 25 per cent to N22.76 billion, with the total assets at N499.2 billion.
He expressed optimism that the 2022 fiscal year would be better because of the gradual recovery of the economy.
Dipo Olowookere 
Adedapo Adesanya