The Development Bank Of Nigeria (DBN) has disbursed N155.7 billion loan to MSMEs in 2023, stating that since inception, N787.4 billion loans has been disbursed, impacting over 494,819 MSMEs in which 120,326 are Youth-owned MSMEs.
The bank also revealed that loans outstanding grew by 11.1 per cent from N369.4 billion in 2022 to close at N410.3bn at the end of the year.
Disclosing this at the Development Bank Of Nigeria’s Annual General Meeting yesterday, MD/CEO, DBN, Dr. Tony Okpanachi noted that N187 billion of the disbursements in 2023 went to 356,451 women – owned businesses and N81 billion went to 120,326 youth- owned businesses, reinforcing the bank’s commitment to financing underserved MSME market segments and resulting in the creation of an impressive 1,200,000 jobs.
Analysing the loans, he said, “N74 billion of our loans were allocated to the manufacturing sector, benefitting 3696 end-borrowers. furthermore, N 38 billion was directed to agriculture, reaching 8,163 end borrowers. These strategic investments underscore the Bank’s drive to grow sectors vital to the nation’s economic development.”
According to him, since DBN began operations in 2017, over 1 .5 million jobs have been created.
Speaking on the requirements in the economy, he stated that there is a need to create more jobs, adding that the agency is working on more job creation.
He said, “We are scaling up our operations to ensure that we will be able to create more jobs because that’s quite, very required in the entire economy, we are committed to supporting the priority sectors outlined by the federal government.”
Speaking on the loan payments, he further explained that as at December, 31, 2023, DBN loan repayment has been 100 per cent, adding that there are no non -performing loans.
