Afreximbank Has Put 75 Million Dollars Behind Nigerian Small Businesses

Fashion

Lagos · Thursday 12 November 2026

The African Export-Import Bank has committed a $75 million facility to the Development Bank of Nigeria, to be lent on to eligible Nigerian small and medium-sized businesses. Reports on the deal describe creative businesses as among its intended beneficiaries.

tailor shop sewing machines workers Photograph by Luba Glazunova via Unsplash.

How the money moves

Step	Who
Lender	Afreximbank
Wholesale borrower	Development Bank of Nigeria
On-lending	Through partner banks to eligible SMEs
Who benefits	Small businesses, with creative firms named

Interest rates and eligibility criteria will decide who actually gets a loan.

Why fashion businesses should pay attention. Most Nigerian fashion labels are small, run by one founder, and financed by savings and family. Wholesale credit like this is meant to reach exactly them. In practice it often stops at businesses with audited accounts, collateral and a relationship with a bank, which many designers do not have.

The money exists. The question is whether a tailor in Aba can reach it.

What would make it count

Published figures on how many loans went to creative businesses, at what rates and in which states. Earlier this year we wrote about a designer building a fashion brand from Ibadan rather than Lagos. Facilities like this should reach founders like her, not only the ones who already have a banker.

Reporting: Business Post Nigeria, Nairametrics, Blueprint and Voice of Nigeria.

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