DBN Primes MSMEs For Productive Growth In Northern Nigeria
BY EDMOND ODOK – Targetting its mandate execution for effective service delivery, the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has moved to address challenges limiting the growth and contributions of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to the nation’s economic growth and development.
Putting its searchlight, particularly on the MSMEs operating in the Northern part of the country, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DBN, Tony Okpanachi said the bank is concerned that stakeholders have a huge task of doing more to boost the growth and development of MSMEs in the country.
Okpanachi, who spoke at the 2nd regional DBN MSMEs summit in the North-West geopolitical zone of the country, said though some achievements have been made, among the disturbing challenges are access to finance, value chains, and the markets.
According to him; “The summit is one of DBN’s stakeholder engagement strategies aimed at creating awareness around our mandate of providing access to finance, capacity building, and partial credit guarantees to the MSMEs in Nigeria. This is important because they play a crucial role in accelerating economic growth through poverty alleviation, job, and wealth creation.”
Okpanachi, who admitted that “so much has changed” since DBN’s last summit in Maiduguri, Borno State before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, said; “The conversations here will inspire and empower the MSMEs to deploy innovation, strategy, and creativity to sustainably address these challenges and thereby build enterprises that create exponential value and contribute to Nigeria’s socio-economic development,” Okpanachi noted in his address.
He said reports by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that “Small and Medium-Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria have contributed about 48% of the national GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in the last five years. With a total number of about 17.4 million, they account for about 50% of industrial jobs and nearly 90% of the manufacturing sector”.
Additionally, the DBN boss said; “Though significant growth has been achieved in the MSME sector, there is still much to be done. Kano plays a major economic role in the northern business terrain and the challenges that MSMEs have to contend with are not different from those faced internationally.
“They include access to finance, value chains, and markets. A PwC report in 2020 identified obtaining finance, finding customers, and infrastructure deficits as the most pressing problems of MSMEs in Nigeria. It is therefore pertinent for us as a Bank to champion the conversation on how MSMEs can win despite these challenges, by exposing ways through which MSMEs can benefit from our sustainable financial offerings”.
Explaining that the Kano summit was meant to galvanise key stakeholders in the MSME ecosystem within the region to take advantage of the DBN platform to scale their businesses, Okpanachi acknowledged Kano as a major economic hub in the northern business terrain and the challenges faced by MSMEs are not different from those on the global level.
He said with the theme focused directly on DBN’s commitment, as a financial institution, towards providing a conducive environment for MSMEs to thrive, the bank “will continue to work towards building the capacity of MSMEs, eliminating the financing constraints faced by this sector of the economy and transforming them into instruments of positive and sustained change.”
In his remarks, host Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State noted that the summit coincides with the Kano state development plan aimed at accelerating industrial growth which in turn will provide an enabling environment not only for commerce to thrive but also for the economy to grow.
The Governor, represented by the Head of Service, Alhaji Usman Bala Mohammed, urged entrepreneurs to take full advantage of the summit to seek solutions to their business challenges and productivity.
For the keynote Speaker, Alhaji Tajudeen Dantata, CEO of Dantata Foods, in discussing inclusive financing, “We must recognize the important role of the MSMEs as key players in the Nigerian economy, the role of the DBN working in conjunction with their participating financial institutions in addressing the financial constraints faced by the MSMEs”.
Elaborating on the synergies that must exist in the financial and the MSME ecosystem as a key factor to addressing sustainable funding challenges faced by entrepreneurs, Alhaji Dantata urged DBN to step up and provide the much-needed financial inclusion leadership needed in the region.
He said this could be done by setting aside tailored made funding solutions that take cognizance of the peculiarity of this part of the country, emphasizing that such an arrangement will complement the efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Attended by MSMEs in Kano and the North-west zone as well as government agencies and stakeholders across sectors, including traditional rulers, the summit was packaged to rehone the skills of business owners for productive ventures; as well as update their knowledge on accessing reliable financing, and efficiently utilizing the funds to upscale and grow their businesses.
With the theme; “The role of Development Banks in Inclusive Financing”, notable participants at the event included the Chief Executive Officer of Dantata Foods, Alhaji Tajudeen Dantata, as the Keynote speaker, alongside panelists, Aisha Tofa, Founder of Startup Kano Hub; Ify Mogekwu of Ify’s Kitchen; Samirah Faruk, Founder Mercy Mission Global Ltd; Olusegun Adegun, Co-Founder, Rural farmers hub and Saratu Buhari, Founder of WeKasuwa.
