AfDB approves $600m loan for Nigeria
Oyetunji Abioye
The African Development Bank’s Board of
Directors on Wednesday approved a $600m loan for Nigeria, several months
after the Federal Government had approached the lender for a
budget-support facility.
The loan is meant to help Nigeria plug its budget deficit as the nation grapples with its first recession in more than 20 years.
The $600m loan is the first tranche of a total $1bn budget support package, according to a Reuters report quoting a senior bank official.
The second disbursement of $400m would
be dependent upon the implementation of reforms and expected early next
year, the bank’s Nigeria country director Ousmane Dore, said
The President, AfDB, Dr. Akinwunmi
Adesina, had on September 26 said the bank was working on giving Nigeria
loan facilities of $4.1bn between now and next year for critical
sectors of the economy.
The loans include $1bn at a
concessionary interest rate of 1.2 per cent for Nigeria to address the
2016 budget deficit and aid her economic recovery.
Adesina said this after a meeting with
Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and other members of the Economic
Management Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to the AfDB president, the
package includes $1bn in budget support; $300m to create jobs for
185,000 youths; $250m towards infrastructure development in the
North-East; $1m grant to deal with challenges of Internally Displaced
Persons; $300m for infrastructure development around Abuja, and $200m
for the Transmission Company of Nigeria to improve its facilities, among
others.
Stressing that Nigeria was the largest
shareholder in the bank, Adesina said that the bank was in the country
to offer its support in the face of the current tough times.
He said, “I think the times are difficult 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 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 we are going to do about it.
No comments: