DBN Launches N1.4trn-Backed Push for Women Entrepreneurs
…Signs $61m AfDB credit line
By Patience Ikpeme
The Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) on Wednesday launched a new programme to help women-owned businesses grow, as it also signed a $61 million credit line with the African Development Bank (AfDB) meant for women-led enterprises.
The programme, called DAWN (DBN Action for Women in Nigeria), was unveiled at the seventh DBN Annual Lecture at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja. The bank also released its Impact Report and presented its MSME Data Assets, an open data resource on Nigerian small businesses.
The lecture was held under the theme “From Policy to Prosperity: Translating Economic Reforms into MSME Growth”. It brought together government officials, regulators, development partners, financial institutions and business owners to discuss how the government’s economic reforms can improve the fortunes of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
The Managing Director and Chief Executive of DBN, Dr Tony Okpanachi, said money alone has not helped enough women-led businesses to grow. DAWN therefore combines several kinds of support: loans, guarantees and credit support that share risk with lenders, technical help to prepare businesses for growth, grants tied to clear results, and links to customers, trade platforms and business associations.
The support will reach women through commercial banks, microfinance banks, fintech companies, aggregators and cooperative societies, as well as through direct channels. The priority sectors are agriculture and exports, healthcare, arts and creative businesses, technology and green business.
“DAWN is about moving gender-focused lending beyond intention and turning access into opportunity,” Dr Okpanachi said.
He said the programme would also give the banks that work with DBN a stronger basis to lend to women-led businesses on a lasting basis.
On the sidelines of the lecture, DBN and the AfDB held the signing ceremony for a $61 million Gender Line of Credit. The deal supports the bank’s commitment to women-led enterprises and adds funding to the new programme.
Dr Okpanachi told the gathering that by December 2025, DBN had paid out a total of N1.4 trillion to MSMEs through 84 Participating Financial Institutions. He said this had created about 1.6 million jobs across the country.
“These are more than figures,” he said. “Each one is a payroll met, a machine bought or a harvest saved.”
Under its new five-year plan, the bank wants to reach more than two million MSMEs. It has set clear targets for businesses led by women and young people, and for states that have been left behind in access to finance.
Dr Okpanachi said the main challenge is no longer the reforms themselves but making sure ordinary businesses feel their benefits.
“The major reforms are now in place,” he said. “How do we make sure their benefits reach the trader in Onitsha, the fabricator in Aba, the farmer in Kebbi and the young founder in Yaba?”
He cited a national survey by the National Bureau of Statistics and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), which found that MSMEs account for close to half of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and more than eight in every ten jobs. “When reform works for MSMEs, it works for most Nigerians,” he said.
He admitted that the reforms of the past three years were “difficult, but necessary”, and that many businesses carried real costs while they took effect. He said a reform turns into prosperity only when a business owner can act on it. That means getting a loan long enough to buy equipment and not just to restock, dealing with a bank willing to take a risk on her, and having the skills and records needed to grow. If one of these is missing, he said, the benefit of the reform stops short.
DBN does not lend directly to most small businesses. It works mainly through commercial, merchant and microfinance banks, which it supports with longer-term funding, partial credit guarantees through its subsidiary, Impact Credit Guarantee Limited, and training for lenders and business owners, including its Entrepreneurship Training Programme.
Dr Okpanachi made three requests. He urged the banks working with DBN to extend lending into sectors and states where access to finance has been limited. He asked policymakers and regulators to keep listening to businesses and to “measure reform by what changes for the business at the end of the chain”.
He also told small business owners to register their businesses formally, keep good records and make use of the help now available. “It was built for you,” he said.
Speaking for the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mrs Augusta Warrens Bekaredebo said the 2026 tax reforms would bring relief to many small businesses. She said she was hopeful that by next year “a lot of businesses will be smiling”, because they will be exempted from tax.
