Business and Economy
DBN, AfDB Move to Close Nigeria’s Gender Funding Gap
BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF
The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) has continued to place unusual and extraordinary attention on women empowerment, with its latest strides expanding access to funding from a global perspective.
Beyond its special attention and regular funding aimed at advancing women’s economic participation through Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), DBN has secured another major funding package with global significance.
The package includes a $50 million credit line, an $8 million Agri-Food facility and a $3 million technical grant under the management of Dr Tony Okpanachi.
The $61 million financing package, equivalent to about ₦87 billion, is aimed at bridging the multi-billion-dollar credit gap facing female entrepreneurs across Nigeria.
The Development Bank of Nigeria secured the financing from the African Development Bank (AfDB) as part of efforts to provide lasting solutions to the numerous challenges confronting women entrepreneurs in the country.
The development is in addition to DBN’s routine and annual engagements that prioritise women’s activities in all ramifications and seek to address their financing and capacity-building needs.
About 95 per cent of the total facility has been earmarked for female entrepreneurs in agriculture, healthcare and energy.
The focus is expected to diversify women’s economic activities across the country and open opportunities beyond traditional areas of engagement.
The partnership is specifically geared towards dismantling systemic barriers that have limited access to capital for women-owned and women-led MSMEs across the federation, a challenge identified by the DBN management under Dr Tony Okpanachi.
The financing is structured into three specialised tiers to ensure maximum impact across the value chain.
The largest component is the $50 million gender-focused line of credit, which will be deployed for direct lending. This is complemented by an $8 million concessional facility under the Agri-Food SME Catalytic Financing Mechanism and a $3 million grant supported by the Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) initiative, a programme backed by the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi).
In line with the operational framework, the African Development Bank has earmarked more than 95 per cent of the total financing for women-led businesses across the country.
The initiative targets high-impact sectors, including agriculture, clean energy and healthcare, which are considered backbones of Nigeria’s local economy and sectors where global best practices are increasingly being applied.
The funds will be channelled through DBN’s extensive network of Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), including commercial banks and microfinance institutions.
These institutions are expected to on-lend the funds to eligible MSMEs, combining long-term capital with partial credit guarantees and technical assistance to support business sustainability.
The move by DBN is designed to provide lasting solutions to women’s economic empowerment, moving away from the old order where women-led MSMEs often faced high interest rates and stringent collateral requirements, despite the significant contribution of MSMEs to Nigeria’s economy.
To improve training and retraining, the $3 million grant component will be deployed to provide a “soft landing” for female entrepreneurs, helping them transition from subsistence-level operations to competitive enterprises through in-depth capacity building.
According to observers and experts, “Women entrepreneurs [are a] critical but significantly under-served segment of the Nigerian economy.”
They noted that the initiative reflects the African Development Bank’s commitment to unlocking economic opportunities for women through DBN, stressing that it goes beyond expanding access to credit to investing in the engine of Nigeria’s inclusive economic transformation.
AfDB Director-General, Kamara, also stated that the institution is investing in the engine of Nigeria’s economic transformation, emphasising that the initiative is about more than providing loans, but also about promoting economic inclusion for women.
Having attained this feat, DBN aims to improve private sector-led growth and ensure that the next generation of Nigerian female business leaders has the financial backing required to compete on a global stage.
The development is also a product of the longstanding relationship between DBN and AfDB, characterised by annual and intermittent engagements, meetings, and bilateral and tripartite discussions aimed at promoting human development and economic freedom.
Written BY ABUBAKAR YUSUF
yus.abubakar3@gmail.com