By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

The Managing Director (MD) of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Mr. Tony Okpanachi, has said that the bank’s innovative financing model was effectively tackling financing challenges confronting Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the country.

Tony Okpanachi

He spoke at the maiden DBN Lecture Series in Abuja, yesterday.

According to him, DBN’s financing model with partial credit guarantee was innovative and sustainable.

His words, “Our mandate at the Development Bank of Nigeria is to alleviate financing constraints faced by the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria through the provision of financing and partial credit guarantees to eligible financial intermediaries on a market conforming and fully financially sustainable basis

“This lecture series is our way of providing a platform for a robust exchange of ideas to tackle the challenges and take advantage of opportunities that exist in the MSME segment of the economy.

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“We believe that at the end of today’s interactions we would have a broadened understanding of these challenges and critically examine and act towards practical steps to resolve some of the obstacles that constrain growth within the segment.”

The MD said that discussions at the lecture would help to upscale the capacity of PFIs to lend to MSMEs and improve the capacity of MSMEs across all sectors of the economy to access and use finance efficiently.

“DBN is positioned to play a focal and catalytic role in providing funding and risk-sharing guarantees,” he said.

Mr. Okpanachi also revealed that his team would soon expand the capital base of the bank to enable it lend to a greater number of MSMEs

Also speaking, The Chairman of DBN, Dr. Shehu Yahaya, revealed that “the Bank has lent more than 70 billion Naira and impacted on more than 50,000 MSMEs” hinting that when the capital expansion is executed, more funds will be made available to more MSMEs which contribute about 60% to the GDP.

In his lecture, former President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Donald Kaberuka, noted that security and political stability were critical to the growth of the MSMEs sub-sector.

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