Former Anambra State Governor and 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has raised concerns over the Development Bank of Nigeria’s (DBN) claim that it has disbursed more than ₦1 trillion to Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) since 2015.In a statement posted on his official X handle, Obi said he initially refrained from commenting on the report but decided to investigate further through his engagements with small businesses across the country.
According to him, “The reality is that most of them are not even aware of any such disbursement, and over 80% are unaware of the Bank’s very existence.”He stressed that if indeed such an amount was deployed, the impact should be visible in the economy. “If $1 billion were disbursed in small loans averaging about $1,000 each, it could have supported at least 1 million small businesses.
The ripple effect of this would have been no less than 3 million new jobs, with visible growth in enterprises, an improved economy, and measurable progress in lifting people out of poverty,” Obi explained.Obi, however, lamented that the current situation in the country paints a different picture. He noted: “Unemployment remains at a record high, businesses are struggling to survive rather than thriving, many enterprises are shutting down or relocating outside Nigeria, and poverty is deepening instead of reducing. So the critical question is: if ₦1 trillion truly left the coffers of DBN to empower Nigerians, where did the money go?”
The former presidential candidate argued that empowerment must be proven by tangible results and not just slogans. “Nigerians need to know where the money went. Who exactly were the beneficiaries? What tangible businesses were created? Where is the proof of jobs generated or poverty reduced?”
he queried.Obi warned that without answers, the DBN’s claim amounts to “yet another round of grand deception, where scarce national resources are captured by a few elites and recycled under the guise of empowerment schemes.” He insisted that Nigerians must demand transparency and accountability, stressing that “our people deserve evidence that such vast sums are being invested in their lives and future—not lost to corruption or buried in empty statistics.”