Adeosun said this on Monday in Abuja during a retreat with development partners and incoming management team and Board of Directors of the DBN.
While decrying the situation where SMEs account for 45% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the minister said that “Nigeria’s financing of MSMEs lagged significantly behind other countries, including Brazil (63 per cent), Ghana (36 per cent), China (30 per cent), Kenya (24 per cent), and South Africa (21 per cent).”
Adeosun however noted that the DBN has come to alleviate some of the problems currently discouraging the growth of the SMEs sector in the country.
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“DBN would lend to micro-finance banks, which will in turn develop specific products for specific markets at a lower interest rate than currently available to SMEs.
“The Finance Ministry is in discussion with the Central Bank of Nigeria on the need to use the Development Bank as a vehicle for any of its subsequent SMEs intervention.
“The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) is a wholesale financial institution, which aims to increase access to finance for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) through eligible financial intermediaries (participating financial institutions).
“The DBN will have access to US$1.3bn (N396.5 billion), which will be provided by the World Bank (WB), KfW (German Development Bank), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Agence Française de Development (French Development Agency) ,” the minister said.