The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), has pledged to continue addressing financial challenges of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to transform them into instrument of positive development.
The Managing Director of the bank, Dr Tony Okpanachi, stated this at the regional Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) MSMEs Summit in Kano on Thursday.
The theme of the 2022 Summit is: “the Role of Development Banks in Inclusive Financing”.
He said that the theme would give them opportunity to interact with SMEs in the region with a view to addressing them.
“DBN will continued to work toward building capacity of MSMEs, eliminating their financial constraints and transform them into instrument of positive and sustainable development,” he said.
He revealed that MSMEs in Nigeria play crucial role in economic growth of poverty reduction, job creation, as well as, wealth creation, among others .
Okpanachi said that DBN organized the summit as a stakeholders engagement strategy to create awareness among the MSMEs sector.
“According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, SMEs in Nigeria have contributed about 48 per cent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last five years.
“With a total number of about 17.4 million, they account for about 50 per cent of industrial jobs and nearly 90 per cent of the manufacturing sector,” he said
“MSMEs plays role in several sectors including agriculture, transport and logistics, tourism and hospitality, textile, leather and solid minerals, among others,” he said.
In his keynote address, Alhaji Tajudeen Dantata, the Chairman of Dantata Foods, said that the MSMEs in Nigeria facing some challenges.
He listed the challenges to include lack of access to credit facilities, inconsistencies of government policies, limited infrastructure, lack of land, unavailability of local raw materials, among others.
Dantata stressed the need to address those constraints for the development of the sector and the economy in general.
Also speaking, Gov Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano state, who was represented by the state Head of Service, Alhaji Usman Bala, said that the state government continue to provide enabling environment for the MSMEs to thrive.
He said that was because MSMEs were critical to ex growth, poverty reduction and jobs creation.
