Nigeria’s Development Bank has disbursed 1/2 trillion naira loan with Northern Nigeria getting 11%,, while Lagos State got 47% of the total sum according to The Citizen Reports Investigations.
This shows a huge disparity between the six geo-political regions of Nigeria and the states of the half-a-trillion naira given out as a loan in 2021. While Lagos State goes home with 47% of the total loan, the Northern region gets 11%. Experts say this is not by chance.
The “Development Bank of Nigeria exists to alleviate financing constraints faced by Micro, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria through providing financing, partial credit guarantees, and technical assistance to eligible financial intermediaries on a market-conforming and fully financially sustainable”.
According to the bank’s Annual Integrated Statutory Report 2021 obtained from the organization’s website, the bank was able to disburse a loan worth 483 billion Naira. Only 11% of it, however, goes to the 19 states of northern Nigeria, while 47% goes to Lagos alone.
The Citizen Reports estimates that the 11 percent of the loan that went to the North would be about 53,130,000,000 and that the 47 percent that went to Lagos State alone would amount to over 227 billion.
The 123-page report covers a wide range of topics, including the accomplishments of the Bank over its five years of operation.
The Citizen Reports looked at how loans were given out to the country’s six geopolitical zones, in addition to the North and South regions. The data showed that the South-West takes the lion’s share with 57% of the total loan, which is estimated to be around 274 billion.
The South-South takes 17%, which is roughly 81 billiion.The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the North-Central region come in third with 11% access, or roughly 53 billion followed by the South-East with 9% access, or roughly 43 billion . While the North-West has 5% access (N24,100,000,000), the North-East accessed only 1%, the least share of the total loan at roughly 4 billion.
The top five sectors considered for the loan are Oil and Gas (42.0%), Manufacturing (16.0%), Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (7.2%), Trade and Commerce (6.3%), and Transportation and Storage (3.5%).
The Reports also examined the eligibility criteria provided by DBN that the loan is only given to Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) through “Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs),” which include “Commercial Banks, Microfinance Banks, Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), and other financial institutions.”
