MEDIATRACNET
Micro, Small, and Medium Scale Enterprises in the country have so far benefited from financial support from Development Bank of Nigeria Plc, to the tune of about N482bilion since the inception of the bank.
The bank said the bulk of the total amount, representing N313.3bilion, or 65 percent went to women and youth-owned business enterprises.
The Managing Director of DBN, Tony Okpanachi, disclosed this while presenting to the shareholders the summary of the financial statement of the bank for the year ended December 31,2021.
Describing the fundamentals of the bank’s financials as robust, Okpanachi said the total gross earnings closed at N38.18billion, while Profit Before Tax was about N22.76billion representing an increase of 25 percent from the previous year.
Total assets, he said, also increased by 1.4 percent, from N492.3billion in 2020 to N499.2billion in 2021.
Okpanachi attributed the bank’s financial performance to “its robust corporate governance framework, business model as well as its top-notch enterprise risk.”
“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 businesses owned or managed by women, is something that we are particularly delighted about from the perspective of women empowerment and poverty alleviation,” he said.
Okpanachi expressed his gratitude to the bank’s shareholders, development partners, PFIs, Board of Directors, and employees for their continued support, promising to continue to remain focused on delivering the bank’s mandate.
The MD said the bank would also sustain efforts toward achieving sustainable financing and capacity building for the MSMEs.
