Shofola Osho, 

The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has granted more than N439 billion credit facility to over 180 businesses within four years of its existence with women and youth-owned businesses as the highest beneficiaries.

The bank’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tony Okpanachi, disclosed this when the Chairman, IoD Centre for Corporate Governance (IoDCCG), Alhaji Shuaibu Idris, led members of the Board of Governors and Management to a visit to the bank at its Head Office in the FCT Abuja, recently.

Okpanachi  further said that DBN, capitalised to the tune of half a trillion naira, had onboarded about 47 financial institutions as its participating intermediary banks, stressing that with an ownership structure comprising diverse institutions which include federal government of Nigeria and certain multilateral funding institutions.

He accorded the success within the short period of operation to strict application of sound corporate governance principles and practices and a robust risk assessment mechanism in its operations.

Responding, the IoDCCG Chairman, Alhaji Shuaibu Idris, pointed out that the application of good Corporate Governance was the main attraction to IoDCCG and the reason the centre was approaching the bank for partnership given the shared vision.

The move, he said, would further strengthen the bank and enhance its capacity to deliver more on its mandate.

The chairman further disclosed that  the centre also 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 organisations.

He however 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, which was why it achieved success within four years of operation.

Besides, the chairman made the following request to the bank’s management:

.  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.

. Partnership with DBN on production of Corporate Governance Compendium.

Okpanachi, however, assured that requests were 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 outfit.