The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) said in a release dated Nov. 11 that it committed $75 million to the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) to finance SMEs and support access to export markets.
DBN will make the funds available through participating financial institutions, putting the Nigerian bank between Afreximbank and businesses seeking credit. Planned uses include day-to-day operating funds, asset acquisitions, financing before and after exports, and supply-chain activity.
The intended recipients are small and medium-sized enterprises. The announcement points to creative businesses in design, music, fashion, film and related fields among those eligible. It gives no estimate of how many firms could receive financing or when applications may open.
Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s executive vice president for Intra-African Trade and Export Development, and Tony Okpanachi, DBN’s managing director and chief executive officer, led the signing ceremony at CANEX WKND 2026 in Lagos. The release did not specify the ceremony’s date.
Afreximbank and DBN plan a capacity-building program for participating lenders serving SMEs with export ambitions. Afreximbank also plans to make MANSA, TRADAR, PAPSS and ATEX available to beneficiaries, while connecting them with markets through ATDC, the Africa Buyer Programme and the Intra-African Trade Fair.
DBN describes its broader approach as supplying wholesale funding and sharing lending risks with financial institutions that then lend to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. That general description outlines DBN’s intermediary role but does not establish terms for this particular commitment.
Awani said the initiative aims to help Nigerian SMEs compete in overseas markets and develop into sustainable exporters. She described one goal as helping businesses “build productive capacity.”
Afreximbank’s release did not give an interest rate, maturity or terms for individual borrowers. It also provided no disbursement schedule and did not say that funds had already reached businesses.
