MSME vital for economic growth — DBN

The Development Bank of Nigeria has advocated for increased digital innovation, financial inclusion, and sustainable partnerships to accelerate the growth of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria.

It said this when it hosted experts and stakeholders at the second edition of its Techpreneur Summit.

The summit which held in Lagos noted that MSMEs were pivotal for national economic growth, job creation and as the bedrock of industrialisation.

The Techpreneur Summit theme titled, ‘Promoting innovation and sustainable partnerships’, was delivered by the keynote speaker, the President/Co-Chief Executive Officer of Opay, Mr Olu Akanmu.

Akanmu commended the Development Bank of Nigeria for its mission of facilitating sustainable socio-economic development through the provision of finance to the underserved and unserved community of MSMEs, providing them with credit guarantees and equipping them with the capacity to scale up.

“By enabling MSMEs to access funding on non-commercial terms, DBN has been at the forefront of promoting financial inclusion for small businesses as a larger number of them are excluded by the traditional financial institutions due to stringent conditions attached to accessing credit facilities,” he said.

The guest speaker said that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Naira design and cash swap in the first quarter of the year made it more imperative for MSMEs to embrace technology and innovation for their systems, product design, marketing, and transactions.

He stated that the socioeconomic parity index still showed a wide gap between the rich and the poor, stated that the potential for small and mid-sized businesses to play a key role in bridging the gap was very huge if the right environment was created for MSMEs to grow sustainably.