By Bassey Udo
More than 1.6million jobs were created by the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) as result of over N1.4 trillion loans disbursed to various Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the last ten years, the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Bank, Tony Okpanachi, has said.
Mr Okpanachi, who addressed shareholders on the impact of the Bank on Thursday during its 9th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja, said the amount represented the total cumulative disbursement of loans from inception of the Bank in 2015 to December 2025, as part of its mandate to support MSMEs with credits to enable them contribute their quota to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
DBN was conceived in 2014 and established in 2015 by the Federal Government of Nigeria in collaboration with international partners to alleviate financing constraints faced by MSMEs in Nigeria through providing financing, partial credit guarantees and technical assistance to eligible financial intermediaries on a market-conforming and fully financially sustainable basis.
Although there are over 37 million MSMEs in the country accounting for more than half of the GDP, less than 5% have access to credits from about 84 existing participating financial institutions in the country.
The MD said updates on the performance of the Bank contained in the published 2025 Audited Account and Financial statement showed that beyond the financials, the impact of the Bank also covered building the capacities of MSMEs by training over 48,000 beneficiaries as at the end of 2025.
“We trained the beneficiaries in best practices, and how to make them assess finance from financial institutions that we work with,” he said.
In terms of disbursements, he said in 2025 alone, the Bank did the equivalent of over $300 billion to MSMEs across the country, describing the year as a very good year, in terms of operational performance and impact of the Bank.
On monetary evaluation of the impact of the disbursement, he said the impact of the funds on MSMEs businesses were tremendous, as over 1.6million jobs were created over the last 10 years, to enable them make the rightful impact in the economy.
“In terms of numbers, in the last year alone (2025), we did over 180,000, in terms of the number of MSMEs, a lot of which accessed some of our funding through microfinance banks. There’s a lot more to be done, given the number of MSMEs we have in Nigeria, the demand and the need for assets to finance. We do this in partnership with financial institutions, by drawing attention to the needs of the MSMEs and the assets they finance.
In terms of dividend pay out, the MD said the Directors of Bank recommended for the approval of shareholders a dividend payment of N85 per share our of a total dividend payout of N8.5 billion, which would form the capital of the bank. This, he pointed out, was subject to the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities.
He said the recommendation by the Board of Directors was based on a maximum of 25% dividend payout ratio in line with the Bank’s dividend payment policy approved by shareholders at the 6th AGM of the Bank on April 25, 2023.
Describing the dividend payout as a demonstration of the Bank’s financial sustainability, he said the interest rates, were determined by the financial institutions the Bank lent to since they take the credit risk.
Going forward, Okpanachi said the bank will consolidate on the achievements by deepening its support for MSMEs
An independent Non-Executive Director of the Bank, Kyari Bukar, said the shareholders and other stakeholders, including the directors and owners, were not only proud of the financial performance of the Bank, but also the impact it was making in the economy.
“Yes, the annual report and accounts approved by the shareholders and the performance is overwhelmingly positive. A dividend of N85 per share proposed translated to a total cumulative of N8.5 billion in dividends paid out.
He said when the shareholders of the Bank, namely the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), decided to make corporate governance the key and allowed extremely experienced independent non-executive directors, in addition to those they presented, a solid executive and senior management was in place to oversee the Bank over the last 10 years from inception to its present position, where huge dividend is being declared an attestation to its sustainability.
He said the mandate of the Bank is now to focus on micro, small and medium enterprises across the country to help develop and grow Nigeria’s economy, from the bottom of the pyramid.
“The impact of the Bank is basically financing -opening up financial inclusion to the micro, small and medium enterprises across the length and breadth of the country by lending through our partner financial institutions, including commercial and microfinance banks.
In terms of the outlook in 2026 and beyond, Bukar said considering the uncertainties as a result of the recent geopolitical tensions and upheavals in the global environment, the Bank remained optimistic that it would still make its impact in the financial market.
“We are setting targets that include larger participation of MSMEs in the financial inclusion, by training as many micro, small, medium enterprises as possible; building their capacity before lending money to them.
“We believe that for 2026, as the headwinds are still there and persistent, we know we can fulfil the promise we made to our shareholders in terms of value creation,” he said.