Abdulwahab Isa 
The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has secured a €50 million credit line exclusively for Nigeria’s women entrepreneurs.
This is aside from an additional €825,000 grant to build the capacity of the women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. The bank Managing Director Dr. Tony Okpanachi signed the agreement with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) of France.
“They gave us $130 million, now they’re giving us an additional €50 million. Now, the $130 million was for MSMEs in general, but the €50 million now is for women entrepreneurs”
“We’ve had this funding since 2017, and there are repayment terms. We have been paying and meeting our obligations when it comes to repayment, which is why we were able to secure this new credit line.
Speaking to the terms of the credit facility, Okpanachi described the terms as “favourable” with the intention to help women entrepreneurs overcome challenges hindering their growth in business.
“This is providing additional funding for women entrepreneurs. For us at DBN, women entrepreneurs play a very strong role in our focus area. I can assure you that if you look at the number in terms of our account of lending, cumulative lending, about 74% of our lending has gone to women-owned businesses.
Giving an insight into the range of the credit facility to cover a wide segment of women entrepreneurs, Okpanachi stated that “currently we have over 70 financial institutions we work with as our Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs). What that has done for us, is given us nationwide reach.
“If you cumulatively put the branch network of our partners, it pretty much covers the whole country and not only that, we as DBN are also deliberate about the spread of our lending activities”, he said.
The French Ambassador to Nigeria Marc Fonbaustier said the program fits with French top priorities.
“First, we have a priority, a global priority in diplomacy, which we call feminist diplomacy. Why is that? We simply think and deem it appropriate to insert a gender approach in all our programs.
“So this one is a particular inclination of a priority, which is more global. But I was two weeks ago in Paris and I attended the state visit of your president, President Tinubu, who met President Macron.
I was absolutely struck by the fact that women, youth, employment, economy were the true cornerstones of the visit. So you see, when we sign together today this commitment to be together and open the line of 50 million euros for women entrepreneurs, we just fit, I think, with top priorities, which are shared priorities between Nigeria and France. And I insist on this.”
It is a co-construction between equal partners who have common goals to address, share challenges and try to bring a common response. Number two, that’s my second message. You see rightly, and it’s been said very well by both of you, that this program is the crossroad or the juncture of two dimensions.
