*provides $4.1 billion in 2016/17 to revitalize agriculture, power, infrastructure

*invests $10 billion in 2019

*says Nigeria does not have debt crisis but liquidity problem

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

ABUJA-The African Development Bank, AfDB has resolved to inject a whopping sum of $1 billion to emancipate Nigeria from its current economic woes.

The funds were to essentially cushion the deficits recorded in the N6.04 trillion 2016 budget.

President of the bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina gave the revelation on Monday after a meeting between the bank and the Economic Management Team chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinabjo at the presidential villa, Abuja.

Adesina said that it was important the bank came to the rescue of the country which he said was the largest stakeholder.

He also stated that between now and 2017, AfDB would provide a wholesome package of $4.1 billion to step up social infrastructure, boost agriculture and improve electricity.

Adesina who was Nigeria’s former Minister of Agriculture in the immediate past government of former president Goodluck Jonathan assured that by 2019, AfDB would have increased its financial portfolio to Nigeria to the tune of $10billion.

He said: “African Development Bank (ADB), We have a very strong delegation team to meet Vice President and the economic management team. The bank’s (ADB) largest shareholder is Nigeria. It is very important for me to be here and to talk to the Nigerian government about the challenges and opportunities that are in Nigeria.

“I think the times are difficult. There is no doubt about that but I want to commend the government for being bold in taking the right decisions. I think that the fact that the price of crude oil has gone down is a big challenge because you have 98 percent external forex revenue coming from the sector. So, it has created calibrations. I’m not going to go into the details of all the problems but what is important is that what are we going to do about it.

“I’m not here to lecture Nigerian government. I’m here to support very strongly. We have said that we are going to support the Nigerian government with the budget support to be able to deal with some of fiscal imbalance that they have. We are looking to consider for an award $1 billion to help to deal with that particular deficit.

“In addition to that, the are other challenges that the economy has which is in terms diversifying and deepening the level of diversification in critical sectors. So, agriculture, solid minerals, manufacturing as well as industrial sector is very important. So the bank is going to provide in total between 2016/2017 $4.1 billion to Nigeria in various of power, infrastructure to agriculture and for the private sector the SMEs financing and lending.

“I expect that our portfolio in Nigeria will not decrease. It will actually grow. We expect to invest in Nigeria by 2019 a total of $10 billion.”

Offering some economic advise to the government, the AfDB president urged the government to ensure that the macro policies were in sync with monetary policy and also the fiscal policy side of the economy to bring about a sustainable diversification Programme.

He also said that what bedeviled Nigeria at the moment was liquidity problems and not debt crisis, giving a ray of hope that Nigeria would come out of the economic woods stronger.

“So, let me just say that the issues that we think are important is the need to further deepen the diversification of the rest of the economy, also to make sure that the macro-economic stability as well as fiscal stability in the country. We have asked for the need for better synergies between the macro policy side and monetary policy side and also the fiscal policy side of the economy.

“And of course, we also recognize that power is perhaps the most important challenge that is driving inflation in the country. So, we expect in our portfolio this year to invest a total of 1.400 megawatts of projects to focus on the energy sector and by 2017 we plan to invest in 1,387 megawatt of project for the sector.

“We discussed with Vice President and minister of finance about how to invest in areas of women and youths employment in the country as well as to look for opportunities to support access to finance by supporting the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) with $500 million which will help to provide cheap financing for the real sector that the country wants to grow.

We are also providing $100 million to the Bank of Industry (BoI) to be able to lend to small and medium size enterprises. We also want to finance the Bank of Agriculture to be to reform itself to be able to get more financing.

“So all in all, I want to say that we are not fair weather friends of Nigeria. We are here to provide strong support to the Nigerian government.

“Let me just say that Nigeria has tough times but Nigeria is not falling apart and when people talk about debt crisis, Nigeria is not in debt crisis. If you look at the fiscal deficit of this country with regard to the GDP, is about 3 or 3.5 per cent is still way below the five per cent for the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

“If you look terms of the debt to the GDP ratio for Nigeria is 15 per cent. So there is no debt crisis in Nigeria. What you have is liquidity problem and we are trying to be able to help the country drive down inflation and to be able to make sure we are working with the government to be able to provide incentives to the private sector. Because to come out of recession you need more than government, you need the private sector. So incentives are very important. The finance minister talked about whole lot of incentives that they are going to give and think that is the right way to go.

“Nigeria will come out of this as a better more diversified economy than it went into the recession”, he said.

Also speaking, Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun said that funds were coming to Nigeria as concessions.

“What has been great relief to us in the economic management team is the synergy between what we are trying to do and what the AfDB repositioning under Adesina is trying to focus on. And most of the sectors, the specific programmes that the bank has are the very areas that we want to focus on the economy.

“And as Dr. Adesina said, We are looking unto them with $1 billion budget support but beyond that there are lot of loans and initiatives around agriculture, job creation or the youths, solid minerals, women empowerment and women’s access to finance, access to finance to the SMEs.

“The concession is way below two per cent, is about 1.2 per cent. We are not over borrowing. What we are trying to do is to ensure that this money we are borrowing we use it on the key infrastructure that will drive the economy”, she said.