The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) said it will continue to support the development of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.
The Managing Director/CEO, Tony Okpanachi, disclosed this at a webinar titled ‘Creating a Sustainability Community of Practice for Nigerian Microfinance Banks” organized for MFBs working with the DBN as participating financial institutions.
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He said: “Currently, the overall awareness of sustainability and its transitions for the microfinance ecosystem has not been clearly articulated in Nigeria. This is because most MFBs regard lending as the most essential service to be rendered to end-borrowers.
“This session is designed to enable DBN-affiliated MFBs to have a more robust proposition about sustainability which will open them up to a myriad of advantages, including external funding, generation of deeper trust with stakeholders, and legitimization of their operations along the lines of Sustainability”.
The MD noted that formal MSMEs contribute 40% of GDP in emerging economies.
“In Nigeria, for instance, and that is according to the Bureau of Statistics, an estimated whopping 80% of the entire workforce in the country is employed by about 41 million MSMEs, and their contribution to the economy is estimated at 50%.
“The Development Bank of Nigeria has taken this challenge in its stride. And in doing this, it has focused on sustainability, not as a buzzword, but as a very practical reality that gives MSMEs more than a passing chance at survival.”
