The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has provided credit facility of over N437 billion to over 180 businesses within four years of its existence.
The MD/CEO of the bank, Mr. Tony Okpanachi disclosed this when the chairman, Institute of Directors Centre for Corporate Governance (IoDCCG), Mr. Shuaibu Idris and members of the board of governors and management paid a courtesy visit the bank at its head office in Abuja.
Okpanachi said women- and youth-owned businesses are the highest beneficiaries of the largesse.
He said DBN commenced operation in 2017 as a wholesale development finance institution with the mandate to provide credit facility to MSMEs through participating intermediary banks in Nigeria.
He said part of the bank’s mandate includes credit guarantee and technical assistance to MSMEs.
Okpanachi also disclosed that the bank had brought on board about 47 financial institutions as its participating intermediary banks.
He added that with an ownership structure comprising of diverse institutions which include the federal government and certain multilateral funding institutions, DBN is capitalised to the tune of N500 billion
He said the bank owes its success to strict application of sound corporate governance principles and practices and a robust risk assessment mechanism put in place in its operations.
In is response, the IoDCCG said the centre being an organisation limited by guarantee “is the citadel of Corporate Governance in Nigeria.”
He said the centre had over time watched DBN with keen interest and noted its achievements.
Idris stated that the application of good corporate governance is the main attraction to IoDCCG and the reason the centre approached DBN for partnership given the shared vision.
He said such collaboration would further strengthen the bank and enhance its capacity to deliver more on its mandate.
“IoDCCG offers corporate governance trainings, board evaluation and induction as well as corporate governance framework review and audit to businesses and institutions in the public and private sector organizations,” added.
Idris therefore enjoined the bank to leverage on the centre’s services to continue to stay on top of its mandate.
He praised the leadership of the bank at both the board and management levels as one of the best in the industry.
Thereafter, he made specific requests to the management of DBN which included *partnership with the bank for the upcoming maiden edition of national corporate governance summit; *training and certification of MSMEs on corporate governance; *institutional corporate membership registration of DBN with the centre; *training and corporate governance services to DBN by IoDCCG; *paper presentation by the MD/CEO at the maiden national corporate governance summit; and *partnership with DBN on production of corporate governance compendium.
Responding, Okpanachi said the requests and submissions “are within the mandate of the bank to intervene” and called on various departmental heads present at the meeting to review the requests with a view to getting the bank involved in various areas presented that will advance the operational capacity and success of the institution as an MSMEs funding interventionist bank.
L-R: Company secretary, DBN, Shofola Osho; head, corporate services, DBN, Idris Salihu; acting CEO, IoDCCG, Nerus Ekezie; executive director, finance/corporate services, Ijeoma Ozulumba; chairman, IoDCCG, Mr. Shuaibu Idris;
MDCEO, DBN, Tony Okpanachi; board member, IoDCCG, Dr. Seye Awojobi; assistant director, IoDCCG, northern region, Jazuli Lawal, and risk officer, DBN, Olu Adegbola.
