DBN hinges success on adherence to corporate governance principles, practice

BY JOHNMARK UKOKO

MANAGING Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of the  Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), Tony Okpanachi, has attributed the  success of the financial institution within the short period of its  existence to strict application of sound corporate governance principles  and practices.

Okpanachi, who stated this when Chairman of the Institute of Directors  (IoD) Centre for Corporate Governance  (IoD CCG), Alhaji Shuaibu Idris,  visited him and the senior management team in Abuja, also said the bank  has a robust Rust Assessment Mechanism (RAM) for its operations. He shared the historical background of DBN, which commenced operations  in 2017 as a wholesome development finance institution with the mandate  to provide credit facility to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises  (MSMEs) through participating intermediary banks in the country.

He said part of the bank’s mandate include Credit Guarantee to MSMEs  and informed the IoD CCG’s team that the bank had on boarded about 47  financial institutions as its participating intermediary banks and that  with an ownership structure comprising different institutions, which  include Federal Government and some multilateral funding institutions.

“DBN is capitalised to the tune of half a trillion naira. The bank has  advanced more than N439 billion credit facilities to over 180 businesses  within four years of its existence with women and youth startups as the highest beneficiaries,” he stated. Responding, Idris informed the DBN managing director that his  organisation is the citadel of corporate governance in Nigeria and that  the Center has over the period matched DBN with keen interest and note
its achievements.

He indicated that the application of good corporate governance was the  main attraction to IoDCCG and the reason the centre is approaching the  bank for partnership given the shared values and vision  with the bank. The IoD CCG boss said he wanted the IoD to further strengthen its  relationship and association with the bank, adding that that institute  offer corporate governance training and enjoin the bank to leverage on  the centre’s services to continue to deliver on its mandate.

Idris commended the board and the management of the bank as one of the  best in the industry, which is why it had achieved an unprecedented success within four years of its operations.