DBN Boosts Women and Youth-Owned MSMEs with N631 Billion Loans – The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has disbursed N631 billion in loans to over 313,058 Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the country, according to its latest yearly report. In 2021, DBN facilitated access to finance, with a total loan disbursement of N482 billion to 208,000 MSMEs, of which 27% were youth-owned and 66% were owned by women.
The report also shows that women-owned MSME businesses received the highest share of the loans at 69%, while youth-owned MSMEs benefited from 23% of the loans. Additionally, the bank paid out dividends to its shareholders for the first time in five years.
DBN’s chairman, Dr Shehu Yahaya, stated that “the directors proposed a dividend of N3,418,435,000, which represents 25% of retained earnings (Profit After Tax and after statutory reserves transfers) in the year ended December 31, 2022.” As a result, shareholders approved a dividend payment of N34.18 per share.
From the $1.26 billion loan given to DBN from the World Bank, KfW (German Development Bank), Agence Francaise de Development, and African Development Bank (AfDB), the Federal Government has an outstanding balance of N291.139 billion to pay the foreign partners.
The Federal Government is paying back the loan in naira because it guaranteed the loan from the foreign partners, which was converted into naira at the prevailing exchange rate then, for ease of transmission to beneficiaries.
The report also revealed that the DBN group assets stood at N517.236 billion while its liabilities maxed out at N305.057 billion last year. The bank’s subsidiary, Impact Credit Guarantee Limited, has a shared service agreement with DBN, where the bank provided Human Resources, Information Technology, Administrative, Corporate Communication and Branding, Finance, Internal Audit, Risk Management, Legal, and Secretarial Services to its subsidiary. DBN’s income from these shared services amounted to N83.76m for the year ended 31 December 2022.