Emma Ujah,  Abuja Bureau Chief 

The Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN) has disbursed a total of N482Billion to Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria since it commenced operations in 2017. 

The Managing Director (MD) of the bank, Mr. Tony Okpanachi,disclosed at the the institution’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), in Abuja, yesterday, that 65% of the disbursements were to women and youth-owned businesses.  

He told stakeholders that the fundamentals of the Bank’s financials were very robust, with Gross Earnings closing at N38.18 Bbillion by December 31, 2021.

According to him, Profit Before Tax (PBT) was  N22.76 billion representing, an increase of 25 percent from the previous year.  Total Assets also increased by 1.4% from N492.3 billion in 2020 to N499.2 billion in 2021.  

Mr. Okpanachi, attributed the Bank’s financial performance to “its robust corporate governance framework, business model as well as its top-notch enterprise risk management coupled with highly committed Board of Directors, Management and Staff.  This is something that I am very proud of”  

According to him, “We continued to focus and deliver on our mandate of providing access to finance through our PFIs to Nigeria’s most critical, but underserved Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises 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”. 

“Our cumulative disbursement of N482Billion especially to women-owned or managed businesses; is something that we are particularly delighted about from the perspective of women empowerment and poverty alleviation.” 

The MD expressed gratitude to the bank’s shareholders, development partners, PFIs, Board of Directors, and employees for their continued support with a promise to continue to remain focused on the bank’s mandate, as well as, sustain efforts toward achieving sustainable financing and capacity building for the MSMEs.

Kabir Okunlola, a Partner with KPMG Professional Services, the external auditors of the Bank said that the summary of the financial statement of the bank complied with the relevant statutory requirements.

“In our opinion, the accompanying summary financial information is consistent, in all material respects, with the audited financial statements, and also in compliance with the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, as well as the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020,” he said.