The Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN), Nigeria’s primary wholesale development finance Institution held its AGM yesterday, has disbursed a total disbursement of N482Billion to Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises in Nigeria since inception.
A statement by the bank after it’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel informed shareholders that 65% of the total disbursement was allocated to women and youth-owned businesses.
The Managing Director/CEO of the bank, Mr. Tony Okpanachi who presented the financial statement for the year 2021 informed stakeholders that the fundamentals of the Bank’s financials are robust.
Okpanachi said a total Gross Earnings closed at N38.18 billion, while the Profit Before Tax (PBT) stood at N22.76 billion representing an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. Total Assets also increased by 1.4% from N492.3Billion in 2020 to N499.2Billion in 2021.
The Managing Director 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.
“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 emphasized.
Okpanachi expressed his 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.