The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has recorded a milestone of N1.4 trillion in loan disbursement to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) since establishment in 2015.
This is just as it created a total of 1.6 million jobs within the same period under review.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the DBN, Mr Tony Okpanachi, announced these on Thursday while presenting the bank’s 2025 financial statement at its 9th Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja.
“I can tell you cumulatively, since the establishment of DBN, we have granted over 1.4 trillion Naira in terms of loans to financial institutions that only lend to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. And from that, over 1.6 million jobs have been created,” he said.
Okpanachi noted that the bank existed to alleviate financing constraints faced by MSMEs in Nigeria through providing financing, partial credit guarantees and technical assistance to eligible financial intermediaries on a market-conforming and fully financially sustainable basis.
He presented the shareholders’ request to approve, in respect of the financial year 2025, a dividend per share of 85 naira, 0 kobo, resulting in a total dividend payout of N8.5 billion.
Beyond financials, he said the bank has built capacity for the MSMEs. Noting that in 2025 the bank trained over 48,000 MSMEs under its capacity building programme. According to him, they were trained in best practices and how to access finance from financial institutions that the bank works with.
Speaking on the bank’s outlook for 2026, he said “considering geopolitical tensions? Considering the uncertainties that the recent geopolitical upheavals has brought to the fore, we believe that we will still end up making our mark in the market.
“We expect larger participation of MSMEs. One of our key targets this year would be also to train as many MSMEs as possible. Building their capacity before you lend them money is critical, because if you start lending money without them knowing how to manage the money, it can be disastrous.
“So we believe that for 2026, as the headwinds are still there and persistent, we know we can fulfil the promise we made to our shareholders in terms of value creation.”
