The Development Bank of Nigeria Plc (DBN), on Tuesday said, it has so far disbursed N482 billion to Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, since its inception in 2014.
It, however, said 65% of the beneficiaries of the disbursed funds were women and youth-owned businesses.
The bank made the disclosure in its Annual General Meeting (AGM), held in Abuja on Tuesday.
While presenting the summary of the financial statement for the year ended 31 December, 2021, to the shareholders, the DBN Managing Director, Tony Okpanachi, informed stakeholders that the fundamentals of the Bank’s financials were robust.
“Total Gross Earnings closed at N38.18 billion, Profit Before Tax (PBT) at N22.76 billion representing an increase of 25 percent from the previous year. Total Assets also increased by 1.4% from N492.3 billion in 2020 to N499.2 billion in 2021″, he said.
Okpanachi 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 a 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 N482 billion, especially to women-owned or managed businesses; is something that we are particularly delighted about from the perspective of women empowerment and poverty alleviation”, he emphasised.
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.
Kabir Okunlola, a Partner with KPMG Professional Services, the external auditors of the Bank, said that the summary of the financial statement of the bank complied with the relevant statutory requirements.
“In our opinion, the accompanying summary financial information is consistent, in all material respects, with the audited financial statements, and also in compliance with the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 2020, as well as the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020″, he said.
