President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday formally inaugurated the Development Bank of Nigeria with a capital base of $1.5bn (about N300bn).
The bank is being supported by development partners such as the African Development Bank, World Bank, Agence Francaise de Development, and KFW Entwicklungsbank of Germany
The development bank is expected to support medium to long-term lending to Micro, Small and Medium-scale Enterprises, with duration of up to 10 years and a moratorium period of up to 18 months.
The moratorium period is to enable the MSMEs a grace period before they will start repaying the loans.
Going by the projection of the Federal Government, the capital base of $1.5bn (about N300bn) is expected to increase to $5bn (about N1tn) in the medium-term and to N2tn within the next 10 years.
With each MSME creating an average of five new jobs, it’s projected that the bank will create one million jobs in the near future.
