In furtherance of its drive for good corporate governance, the IoD Centre for Corporate Governance, (IoDCCG) is seeking the cooperation of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) given their shared vision.
The Chairman IoDCCG, Shuaibu Idris, disclosed this recently when he led members of the Board of Governors and Management on a courtesy visit to the Senior Management of the Bank at its Head Office in Abuja.
Idris said the partnership will further strengthen the Bank and enhance its capacity to deliver more on its mandate.
In his words: “IoDCCG being an organisation limited by guarantee, is the citadel of Corporate Governance in Nigeria and that the Centre has over the period watched DBN with keen interest and has noted 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.
The IoDCCG Chairman, saod the center offers Corporate Governance trainings, Board Evaluation and Induction as well as Corporate Governance Framework Review and Audit to businesses and institutions in the public and private sector organisations.
He asked the Bank to leverage on the Centre’s services to continue to stay on top of its mandate while commending the leadership of the Bank at both the Board and Management levels as one of the best in the industry, which has led to the Bank’s unprecedented success within four years of operation.
Idris went on to make specific request to the Management of DBN, which include: partnership with the Bank for the upcoming maiden edition of National Corporate Governance Summit, Training and certification of MSMEs on Corporate Governance and Institutional Corporate Membership registration of DBN with the Centre, among others.
The Managing Director/CEO, Mr. Tony Okpanachi in his response to IoDCCG’s requests, believe the submissions are within the mandate of the Bank to intervene and called on various Departmental Heads present at the meeting to review the requests with a view to getting the Bank involve in various areas presented that will advance the operational capacity and success of the institution as an MSMEs funding interventionist Bank.
The IoDCCG’s delegation was warmly received by the DBN team led the Managing Director/CEO, Tony Okpanachi, who shared the historical background of the Bank which commenced operation in 2017 as a wholesale Development Finance Institution with the mandate to provide credit facility to MSMEs through Participating Intermediary Banks in Nigeria.
The DBN MD/CEO said part of the Bank’s mandate includes Credit Guarantee and Technical Assistance to MSMEs, adding that the Bank has onboarded about 47 Financial Institutions as its Participating Intermediary Banks.
He stated that, with an ownership structure comprising of diverse institutions which includes Federal Government of Nigeria and certain multilateral funding institutions, DBN is capitalised to the tune of half a trillion naira.
He said the Bank has advanced more than N439billion credit facility to over 180 businesses within four years of its existence with women and youth owned businesses been the highest beneficiaries.
Okpanachi attributed the success within the short period to ‘”strict application of sound Corporate Governance Principles and Practices and a robust Risk Assessment mechanism put in place in its operations.”
Highlight of he visit was the presentation of journals produced by IoDCCG to the Management of DBN.
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