By Levinus Nwabughiogu

ABUJA—African Development Bank, AfDB, has resolved to inject a whopping $1 billion to rescue Nigeria from its current economic woes.

Akinwunmi Adesina, President, AfDB

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

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

Adesina said 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 $10 billion.

He said: “African Development Bank, AfDB, has a very strong delegation team to meet Vice President and the economic management team.

‘’The bank’s (AfDB) 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 the fact that the price of crude oil has gone down is a big challenge because you have 98 per cent 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 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 the fiscal imbalance that they have. We are  considering for an award of $1 billion to help to deal with that particular deficit.

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

The AfDB president urged the government to ensure that macro-economic 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 bedevils Nigeria at the moment are liquidity problems and not debt crisis, giving a ray of hope that Nigeria would come out of the woods stronger.