The Development Bank of Nigeria on Tuesday disclosed that it has entered into partnership with LAPO Microfinance Bank to support 10,000 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with low interest loans.
The bank stated that the loan was part of various initiatives aimed at tackling the financial challenges facing MSMEs nationwide.
The bank’s Managing Director, Tony Okpanachi, was quoted as restating the development finance institution’s commitment to making low interest funds available to the MSMEs in view of their critical roles to the nation’s GDP growth.
The banker, who recalled that LAPO Micro Finance Bank (MFB) was among the first three banks that got DBN’s support since its commencement of on-lending activities last October, explained that supporting business entities was in furtherance of its three mandates of lending to the MSMEs, provision of partial guarantees to financial institutions and capacity building.
The DBN boss stated: “This is a milestone achievement and I am particularly happy that we are getting a lot of traction on our lending activities with LAPO. The collaboration is encouraging because it is among the first three microfinance banks we commenced our initial pilot lending with in November 2017.
“I must commend the management team for keying into our business model and I strongly believe we can work together to alleviate the financial constraints faced by the MSMEs”, Okpanachi added
Commenting on the DBN interventions, the Managing Director, LAPO MFB, Mr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe, was quoted as saying that the disbursement of the loans will stimulate greater entrepreneurship in MSMEs sub-sector of the economy
Ehigiamusoe expressed his strong belief in the capacity and potential of the MSMEs in tackling the challenges of poverty and unemployment, particularly among the youth population.
He enthused: “We are happy with the partnership and we will continue to work with the DBN to ensure that collectively, we are able to provide the much-needed funding that the MSMEs require to flourish.”
