DBN to serve as a wholesale bank for MfBs to on-

lend
Urowayino Warami
3 Apr 2017

by Providence Emmanuel

With the approval of operational license for the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) it
would serve as a wholesale bank to Microfinance Banks (MfBs) which will on-lend on
medium and long-term loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

The Central Bank of Nigeria, penultimate week, approved the application for an operational
license for the DBN to begin operations.

The approval conveyed in a letter and addressed to the Managing Director/Chief Executive
Officer of the DBN, was signed by the Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, CBN,
Dr. Okwu Nnanna.

Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, confirmed the approval of the bank adding that the
approval was subject to meeting the minimum capital requirement of N100 billion as well as
the reconstitution of the board of the bank and reviewing its organogram.

The DBN was conceived in 2014 but its take off was delayed by fears that it would lead to
the scrapping of the Bank of Industry.

The bank would have access to about N396.5 billion, which has been jointly provided by the
World Bank, German Development Bank, African Development Bank and the French
Development Agency.

The ministry had in a statement assured that the operations of the development bank would
not eliminate the other existing development finance institutions in the country. The
operations of the DBN is clearly distinct from other development banks as it is focused on
supporting small businesses defined by size and not by sectors.

The DBN, will provide loans to all sectors of the economy including, manufacturing,
services and other industries not currently served by existing development banks thereby
filling an important gap in the provision of finance to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.

MSMEs contribute about 48.47 percent to the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of Nigeria but
have access to only about five percent of lending from Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).

The statement added that the Federal Government expects that the influx of additional
capital from the DBN will lower borrowing rates and the longer tenure of the loans, will
provide the required flexibility in the management of cash flows, giving businesses the
opportunity to make capital improvements, and acquire equipment or supplies.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/04/dbn-serve-wholesale-bank-mfbs-lend/amp/
FEC Approves $1.3bn Loan to DBN for
Funding SMEs
Online Editor
April 6, 2017

Kemi Adeosun
FG orders two million vaccines from Europe to combat meningitis

Omololu Ogunmade in Abuja

Twenty-four hours after the federal government announced the $4.5 billion loan deal with
China to fund agriculture, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) wednesday approved another
$1.3 billion loan to support the Development Bank of Nigerias funding for small scale
businesses.

Making this disclosure while briefing journalists after the FEC meeting in the Presidential
Villa, the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said the loan would enable the bank to
fund small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
According to her, the loan proposal which she said would be subject to National Assemblys
approval, consists of $500 million World Bank loan and $450 million to be obtained from the
African Development Bank (ADB), among others.

The other memo was an approval for credit facilities totaling $1.3billion to support the
Development Bank of Nigeria. As you know the Development Bank of Nigeria recently
received its licence and is being funded by some long term loans from some of our
development partners. So, the World Bank had given us $500million, repayable over 21 years
and all of this is at concessional rate.

The African Development Bank is giving us $450million and KFW is giving us $200
million and the French Development Agency is giving us $130million. To access this money,
we are ready to disburse but there are two requirements that we need to make and one of
them is the legal opinion by the Attorney General of the Federation and the other is the
National Assembly approval.

Before it goes to the National Assembly, it needs to be approved by FEC and the FEC
simply approved it today that these loan requests should go to the National Assembly for
approval so that we can access this money and the Development Bank of Nigeria can take off
fully as it is expected to transform financing to our Micro and Small Medium Enterprises
(MSMEs) sector.

The council enthusiastically approved these facilities which are long tenured, meaning that
the DBN will be able to lend to our SMEs over much longer periods and at much lower rates.
So, the impact on the SMEs will be quiet considerable. She disclosed the World Bank loan
has 21 years of repayment plan.

Adeosun also disclosed that FEC approved the procurement of project managers and
verification consultants to bring 200,000 of the Nigerian military personnel aboard the
interpreted personnel payroll information strategy (IPPIS) platform.

We are hoping to bring in all the military by quarter three of 2017. We have assurances
about the savings that we typically generate when we bring agencies on IPPIS. Generally,
when we bring agencies onto IPPIS, the payroll goes down. Efforts to sanitise our payroll and
make sure that the money we are spending on salaries is very accurate. So, bringing the
military on board is a big step in that area, she added.

Also briefing the press, Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, disclosed that the
federal government had ordered 2 million units of vaccines from Europe to fight meningitis
that is currently ravaging 16 states of the federation. The minister said the units were besides
the 826,000 units that are currently being shipped to Nigeria from Europe besides the 500,000
units currently being distributed across the country through the help World Health
Organisation (WHO).

He said Centre for Disease Control, Nigeria Primary Health Care Development Agency,
World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations International Children Education Fund
(UNICEF) and other parties had proactively been involved in the move to avert the epidemic.

According to him, there are currently 296 cases of meningitis in 16 states of the federation
and 54 local governments with 336 fatalities out of which he said 141 have been confirmed
by laboratory tests. He also said efforts being made to combat the disease include an ongoing
social mobilisation against it, creation of two treatment centres in each local government as
well as the deployment of field epidemiologists to carry out research on the disease.

The minister further explained that the outbreak of the disease was severe this year because
Type A of the meningitis which used to be common had been eliminated while Type C of the
disease which broke out this year had hitherto been rare.

Asked if the outbreak of the disease was not a mark of carelessness on the part of the
government in view of earlier warning by the Nigeria Metrological Agency that heat would
be severe this year, the minister said the rarity of the Type C over the years was the reason it
took the government unaware and not a mark of failure on the part of the government.

Yes, it is true there was a signal that this thing had started in Niger and was going to enter
the country. Like I said before, it was the Type A that we have known that had worried us in
the last years but the Type C came this time as a bit of a surprise because that wasnt the
pattern in the past.

So, the preparedness for treatment was very much on ground but the preparedness for
vaccines could not have been predicted until we begin to diagnose and do tests and discover
that this is a different strand from what we had before and that the immunity you had before
against Type A will not work against Type C. There is largely immunity against Type A in the
country at the moment. If it had been Type A, we would not have seen an epidemic of this
nature, he said.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2017/04/06/fec-approves-1-3bn-loan-to-dbn-for-funding-
smes/