The Nation Newspaper

Tag: African Development Bank (AfDB)

  • Renewable energy: Roadmap for addressing climate change

    Renewable energy: Roadmap for addressing climate change

    At a time power crisis becomes unbearable, clean energy, otherwise known as renewable energy remains the main solution to tackling the intractable problem of unreliable national grid in the country.

    Of course, it bears stating the fact that fossil energy sources such as oil and gas are extensively exploited in Nigeria, most are exported or wasted through leakages or flaring according to the African Development Bank (AfDB) just as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IIPCC) further asserts that burning of fossil fuel and the attendant increase in GhG emissions fuels global warming.

    Impact of gas flaring

    At 17.2 billion metric-cube of natural gas per year along with crude oil exploration, the Niger Delta accounts for 40% of the gas flared in Africa every year, according to Anslem Ajugwo of the Department of Haematology, Madonna University, Elele.

    Gas flaring, is explained as the venting of gas without burning by scientists. It releases methane, which together with CO2 constitutes an estimated 80% of global warming.

    Sea level rise

    A direct consequence of climate change, sea level rise has continued to cause extensive devastation in states across the country. Recently, loss of lives in Niger state arising from sweeping floods was reported. Similar occurrences have also left a trail of destruction in other states notably Lagos, Rivers and Oyo.

    Power cuts: Regular feature in Nigeria´s power sector

    With an estimated 184 million inhabitants according to the World Bank, Nigeria generates slightly above 4,000 megawatts of power. To put this into further context, South Africa with an estimated population of 82 million generates 34,000 megawatts according to ESKOM, the country´s electricity public utility body.

    Recently, Senator Mustapha Bukar (APC, Katsina North) who doubles as Deputy Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, National Assembly expressed pessimism on the chances of resolving the ugly power situation any time soon.

    He observed that an installed power generation capacity of over 12,000 megawatts notwithstanding, the country has only been able to achieve 4,000 megawatts at any time.

    While lamenting the inefficiency in the system, he said: “Nigeria has an installed capacity of 12,522 Megawatts of power, non-available capacity of 5,300; non-operational capacity of 3,180; meaning the amount…available is just over 4,000 Megawatts out of 12,500.”

    He further added, “We have transmission loss of 228, a distribution loss of 447 Megawatts; at the end of the day, only 3,800 Megawatts reach the consumer. And we have commercial loss of more than 36 percent.”

     

    Solar Panels installed in Edo state, Nigeria as part of a rural electrification project. Photo: courtesy of Quartz Africa

     

    Roadmap

    The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) identifies two response templates to climate change viz: Mitigation of climate change by reducing GHG emissions and Adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Clean energy should be extensively exploited in order to mitigate the effects of climate change as well as reduce power deficits in the country.

    With 17% of Nigeria´s population completely out of the insufficient national grid, the expansion of off-grid power solutions is even more expedient. Fortunately, generating electricity from renewables and clean energy sources like solar, wind and biogas is increasingly cheaper and readily available.

    Solar can bridge major energy deficits in rural areas and particularly in northern Nigeria where comparative favourable weather conditions exist.

    According to the Independent Energy Watch Initiative, the country receives abundant sunshine all year round ranging from 6.70kwh/m2/day of horizontal solar radiation in Borno State to as high as 6.07/kwh/m2/d in the Federal Capital Territory. Furthermore and as Derek Markham of Renewable Energy World observes, another area with big potential is off-grid solar and battery storage for people that don’t have grid power.

    Government renewable energy policy

    Although favourable conditions exist in the country, Nigeria has thus far attracted only little investment. The country has recently introduced reforms aimed at opening up the sector. Mr Nico Tyabji, Climatescope Africa Coordinator, Bloomberg New Energy Finance, in an interview in one of the dailies stated that “apart from the feed-in tariff, Nigeria has a range of policies – from renewable energy targets to soft loans to a biofuels blending mandate to encourage renewables. The problem is that many of them aren’t operational. So the government has a job to do to clarify to the private sector exactly how these things work and whether they’re in force yet, because at the moment there’s a lot of confusion.”

    Call to action

    Beside environmental benefits, clean energy solutions stand to devolve the single grid system, leading to efficiency and sufficiency. This is potentially a win-win situation; hence government must show political will as the enabler to see that Nigeria embraces the clean energy revolution.

  • Future of Africa’s youths lies in agriculture – AFDB boss

    Future of Africa’s youths lies in agriculture – AFDB boss

    Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AFDB), on Monday said the future of Africa’s youths lies in unlocking the tremendous opportunities available in agriculture.

    Adesina said this at the inauguration  of  the Akin Adesina Agripreneurs Building which was held as part of activities to mark the 50th anniversary  of  the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan.

    He said: “I firmly believe the future millionaires and billionaires of Africa will come from the agriculture sector.

    “Africa is spending 35 billion dollars a year importing food. That is 35 billion dollars it should be keeping on the continent; that’s 35 billion dollars market  each year for its young people to tap into to create new wealth.

    “But to do that requires totally changing the lenses with which we look at agriculture.

    “Agriculture should no longer be seen as a way of life or a development sector, but rather as a business for wealth creation.”

    He said  many students  now  choose  to study agriculture as a last option

    “Our young ones have memories of deserted villages with poor farmers.

    “With a rapidly aging population of farmers, unless something is done, urgently, Africa will have no farmers left within 20 years.

    “The immediate action, therefore, must be to change the perception of agriculture.

    “We must make agriculture cool,” he said.

    He said youths’   involvement in agriculture was key to sustainable economic growth and  reduction of poverty across the continent.

    Adesina said that investing in the youth would protect the continent’s economy today and in the future.

    He called on African governments to prioritise investments in youths and their business.

    “The youths are like computer microchip processors inside of Africa’s economy. small, many, but if we’ll connected, will transform Africa’s economy with speed.

    “Over the next 30 years, Africa’s GDP is estimated to grow by 500 billion dollars a year, if it is  able to address jobs for its youth, develop its human capital and improve access to better healthcare for its youths.

    “GDP per capita in Africa will rise by 55 per cent in the next four years and by additional 55 per cent through 2050, if Africa provides jobs for its youths.

    “The youths in agriculture, the agripreneurs, have set sail to a better future. Let’s put wind behind their sails,” he said.

    The AFDB boss promised to  offer his unwavering support by working  tirelessly for agripreneurs across Africa.

    “It is my hope that Akin Adesina Agripreneurs Building will become the oyster from where the pearls of wealth in agriculture will develop.

    “The bank will be investing 24 billion dollars in agriculture over the next 10 years, with sharp focus on agricultural value chains, agribusiness and agroindustrial development, a key component of our strategy is to scale up support to agripreneurs, ” he said.

    In his remarks, Dr Nteranya Sanginga, the Director General of IITA, said that the building would be used to train African youths in order to help them unlock employment opportunities and drive development through agriculture.

    “Dr Adesina has staunchly promoted the cause of the African youths, especially strongly supporting the IITA Youth Agripreneurs (IYA) over the years.

    “Through his initiative,  Jobs for Youth in Africa, the AFDB in collaboration with IITA would be scaling out the IYA  model of youth engagement in agribusiness to create  eight million agribusiness jobs within five years for youths.

    “Over one billion dollars would be used to support agribusiness enterprises and jobs for young women and men who have embraced  agriculture as a business.

    “In appreciation of his continuous support and deep commitment of the youth, the IITA Board of Trustees, Management and staff, and the IITA Agripreneurs are preserving Dr Adesina’s legacy by naming the Youth Training Centre at IITA Headquarters after him,” he said.

  • AFDB to invest $24bn in agriculture – Adesina

    AFDB to invest $24bn in agriculture – Adesina

    Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AFDB) says  the bank will invest $24 billion in agriculture in Africa over the next 10 years.

    Adesina made the disclosure at the 50th anniversary celebration of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan on Monday.

    The AFDB president said the bank was committed  to turning  agriculture into a business across Africa and to ensure that the continent fed itself within the next 10 years.

    Adesina said that AFDB had decided to work with IITA to help drive Africa’s agricultural sector transformation and unlock  its full potentials.

    “At the core of this  is getting technologies to millions of farmers and the bank has developed the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) together with IITA and other centres as a technology platform.

    “ This is to help take high yielding technologies to farmers for an African green revolution.

    “AFDB and the World Bank expect to invest up to $800 million in TAAT which will be launched this year,’’ he said.

    Adesina said that the past 50 years of IITA had been full of successes, adding that the institution was run with transparency, honesty and integrity.

    The former agriculture minister said that IITA had contributed so much to agriculture across Africa and in Nigeria in particular.

    He said that the institute developed the maize varieties that transformed the savanna and humid zones.

    “Its cowpea varieties supply the beans on our markets and the soybeans varieties led to the soya beans revolution in Nigeria.

    “While its work on cassava and yam still form the core of Nigeria’s cassava and yams value chain transformation, IITA’s work on alley-farming  sparked global interest in sustainable agriculture.

    “Its landmark breakthrough on biological control which saved Africa from the devastating cassava mealy bug that had wiped out all its cassava was globally recognised,’’ Adesina said.

    In his address, the Director General of IITA, Dr Nteranya Sanginga, highlighted the  successes recorded in the last 50 years.

    Sangina appreciated contributions of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and retired  Gen. Yakubu Gowon to IITA in Nigeria.

    He said that the next agenda of the institute was to see Africa becoming a continent consuming what it produces  in agriculture.

    The director general  pointed out that 99 per cent of funds used in running IITA came from outside  the country  and urged Nigerians to invest in agriculture.

    According to Sangina, there will be serious crisis if funds from outside the country stopped  coming in.

  • FCTA partners UN-Habitat, AfDB on urban renewal projects in selected settlements

    FCTA partners UN-Habitat, AfDB on urban renewal projects in selected settlements

    Some core indigenous settlements communities of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have been selected for urban renewal projects under a soft loan arrangement from African Development Bank (AfDB) and UN-Habitat.

    The Executive Secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Umar Jibrin said this while speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday.

    The projects according to the Executive Secretary, has been given a new impetus by the present FCT Administration under the leadership of Malam Muhammad Bello.

    Jibrin said the settlements include Jikwoyi, Dutsen Alhaji, Gwagwalada and Kuje.

    The minister said the move was a demonstration of the Administration’s resolve to complete viable ongoing projects in the FCT, thereby shifting emphasis on the development of satellite towns.

    According to him, this will go a long way in opening up the grassroots of the Territory to make them places where people can live, work and raise their children.

    Also speaking, the Director, Satellite Town Development Department, (STDD), Victoria Imande said that FCT Administration had submitted proposals which were acceptable to the African Development Bank (ADB) and UN-Habitat.

    “As a result, a substantial part of the pre qualification conditions have been met which include project identification, detailing of scope of work and identification of major problems.

    “Under the arrangement, FCT is shopping for a 300 million dollars syndicated loan by both institutions at an interest rate of between one to 1.5 per cent.

    “The facility would be channeled to addressing the dearth of modern infrastructure among poor communities,’’ she added.

    According to Imande, more than over one million people have been projected to benefit from the life improvement projects which include facilities to be provided such as tap water, electricity, roads, sewage and other basic utilities.

    “The Administration is working with the Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF), consultants to the international agencies to ensure due diligence in the procurement process.’’

    She stated that NIAF was already working on the development of the concept note, environmental and social management framework and tentative scope of the project.

  • AfDB wants MSMEs lending in Africa to be increased to $135bn

    AfDB wants MSMEs lending in Africa to be increased to $135bn

    The African Development Bank (AfDB) has called on financial credit providers to increase lending to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa to 135 billion U.S. dollars.

    A statement issued by Mr. Emeka Anuforo, the Communications Officer of the Bank, in Abuja on Wednesday said that increasing affordable loans would promote the growth of MSMEs on the continent.

    The statement quoted Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of AfDB, as saying that although Africa had the highest percentage of adults starting or running new businesses in the world, the productivity nonetheless remained low.

    Adesina solicited a holistic policy approach to strengthen entrepreneurship to facilitate Africa’s industrialisation and tackle the myriad financial constraints facing small-scale businesses.

    “The entrepreneurial culture is vibrant, with about 80 per cent of Africans viewing entrepreneurship as a good career opportunity.

    “New industrialisation strategies should focus on leveraging this dynamism and targeting the continent’s fast-growing private enterprises which have potential to create quality jobs.

    “Given Africa’s potential for increased involvement in this sector, AfDB is also increasing its efforts to promote access to finance for entrepreneurs to create start-ups and expand existing businesses,” he said.

    Adesina said that the bank in 2016 provided financial services to 156,000 owners and operators of MSMEs via financial intermediaries to address a key challenge facing efforts to start and grow businesses.

    He said that AfDB had collaborated with USAID, the Fund for Africa Private Sector Assistance and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to build the capacity of SMEs in Zambia.

    He said that the partnership was to enable the nation’s financial institutions to become efficient in lending to smaller businesses.

    According to him, the bank is also launching some new programmes that are designed to help Africa to attain its industrialisation goals.

    Adesina said that the bank was also collaborating with the European Investment Bank and the European Commission to help create and grow 1,500 innovative businesses, while creating 25 000 direct jobs and 100,000 indirect jobs.

    He said that the collaboration would also improve environmental, social and management practices in youth-owned SMEs across Africa.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that AfDB, a regional multilateral development bank which has 81 countries as members, promotes the economic and social development of its members.

  • FG collaborates with World Bank, AfDB to construct roads in Kano

    The Federal Government, in collaboration with the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank is to construct 700 kilometers of rural roads in Kano State.

    Mr Ubandoma Umarama, the National Coordinator, Federal Projects Monitoring Unit, disclosed this at a one-day stakeholders’ workshop in Kano on Monday.

    News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop is on identification of intervention areas and selection of high priority rural roads for the ADB/World Bank-funded RAMP III in Kano State.

    Umarama, who was represented by Mr Aminu Mohammed, said the project was an initiative of the federal government, which when completed would address the challenges being faced by rural communities in terms of access roads.

    According to him, no fewer than seven states are currently benefitting from the initiative which is being funded by the World Bank and the African Development Bank (ADB).

    The current benefitting states, the national coordinator said, include: Adamawa, Cross River, Enugu, Imo, Kaduna and Osun.

    “The federal government is playing an intermediary role in the projects which is expected to enhance socio-economic activities of the benefitting communities,’’ he said.

    In his remarks, Gov Abdullahi Ganduje said the project was in line with his administration’s commitment to improve the socio-economic activities of rural dwellers.

    He said the state had recently awarded contract for the construction of 500 kilometers of rural roads across the 44 local government areas of the state.

    Ganduje said this was as part of efforts to open the rural areas for economic development.

    “Rural infrastructural development is aimed at lifting the living standard of rural dwellers, hence our decision to provide the roads for easy access to these areas.

    “These projects, when completed, would not only link the areas to the local and state headquarters, but would also enable rural farmers to transport their farm produce to various markets in the state,’’ the governor said.

    Alhaji Usman Ririwai, the state Commissioner for Water Resources and Rural Development, commended the federal government for the initiative.

    Ririwai said that many communities in the state had suffered a lot due to lack of access roads.

    NAN reports that the workshop was attended by representatives of associations, village and ward heads, among others.

  • Obasanjo, Adesina to speak on African trade at Afreximbank AGM

    Obasanjo, Adesina to speak on African trade at Afreximbank AGM

    The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) says former President Olusegun Obasanjo will speak on African trade at the bank’s 24th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) scheduled for June 28 in Kigali.

    This was announced in a statement by the bank’s spokesman, Mr Obi Emekekwue, on Wednesday in Lagos.

    Emekekwue said the President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr Akinwumi Adesina, and Okechukwu Enelamah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment of Nigeria would also speak at the event.

    He said Prof. Justin Lin, Director, Centre for New Structural Economics and Honorary Dean, National School of Development, Peking University, China and Ade Ayeyemi, Chief Executive Officer, Ecobank Transnational, would speak on integration.

    He said that Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, Anastase Murekezi, the Prime Minister and Claver Gatete, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, among others, would address the four-day event.

    According to Emekekwue, the theme of this year’s meeting is: Boosting intra-African trade and integration.

    He said the event would feature a meeting of the Afreximbank Advisory Group on Trade Finance and Export Development in Africa, which would focus on Africa’s trade opportunities in a world of rising protectionism.

    “There will be an investment forum to be hosted by the Rwandan Government while a trade exhibition will also take place on June 30,” he said.

    Afreximbank is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade.

    The bank was established in October 1993 by African governments, African private and institutional investors, and non-African investors.

    Its two basic constitutive documents are the Establishment Agreement, which gives it the status of an international organisation, and the Charter, which governs its corporate structure and operations.

    Since 1994, it has approved more than 51 billion dollars in credit facilities for African businesses, including about 10.3 billion do0llars in 2016.

    Afreximbank has total assets of 9.4 billion dollars as at April 30, 2016 and is rated BBB+ (GCR), Baa1 (Moody’s), and BBB- (Fitch). The bank is based in Cairo.

     

  • ‎AfDB $800 million support for Agric underway – Adesina

    ‎AfDB $800 million support for Agric underway – Adesina

    …As Agric minister denies famine prediction

     

    The President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has disclosed plans to launch $800 million scheme to support the agriculture sector.

    Adesina said the initiative called the Technology for African Agriculture Transformation (TAAT) was part of efforts designed to encourage technological innovation in the sector.

    The AfDB president made this known at the opening of the African Economic Conference (ACE) organised by the bank in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Monday in Abuja.

    He said the scheme when implemented would reach 40 million farmers in one year.

    He added that another $24 billion would be used to support Nigeria’s agric sector to fight hunger and post-harvest loses.

    His words: “To take new agricultural technologies to scale, we are launching $800m initiative known as TAAT. It has a goal of reaching over 40 million farmers in 10 years. We must equally reduce the food system losses along the value-chain from the farm, transport, storage, processing and marketing.”

    The AfDB president called for a rapid and inclusive bottom up approach to addressing challenges facing the agriculture sector.

    He identified poor infrastructure and access to finance as major challenges, stressing that it became imperative to develop the Staple Crops Processing Zones (SCPZ).

    Adesina added that the initiative would also reduce post-harvest losses.

    The AfDB president urged African nations to invest in the SCPZ in order to create jobs, stressing needs to support private agro-allied firms through incentives and infrastructure.

    His words: “It is important to seek innovative approach to solving finance challenges. When I was the Nigerian agriculture minister, we started NIRSAL which increased lending to farmers by six per cent.

    “To drive agro-industrialisation, the role of finance is key so we are investing $24 billion into agriculture in the next 20 years.”

    In his remarks, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh denied claims that the nation would face famine by 2017.

    The Minister said the Federal Government already mapped out plans to support dry-season farming that would discourage the presumed food shortage.

    He noted that about 10 dams would be constructed in States to support farm irrigation system.

    He said the country has 33 silo sites with capacity to store about 2 million tons of grains so Nigerians should not panic.

    Ogbeh said: “The threat of famine-I think that is a bit of an exaggeration. No danger of famine now. We are doing far better than we did a decade ago. But there is some panic. People are buying and storing. Our neighbours in the West, North and Central Africa are buying, they have always bought. So this is a challenge I am happy about.

    “It says to the farmer, there is a market for your produce. So we are not going to face famine. Government will make sure it doesn’t happen. The GES scheme is working.”

    On recession, he said, “stop buying rice. Eat what you produce, produce what you eat. We have water, irrigation, capacity so we should go into farming. We don’t have business importing foods.”

     

  • AfDB approves US $1m grant to fight malnutrition in Borno

    AfDB approves US $1m grant to fight malnutrition in Borno

    Executive Directors of the African Development Bank (AfDB) have approved a US $1 million grant as emergency assistance to support the fight against malnutrition in Borno State.

    A statement from the AfDB said the Nigerian Minister of Health had declared a nutrition emergency in Borno State.

    In addition to that, the West and Central Africa Regional Food Security and Nutrition Working Group called on the entire international community to respond in order to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

    The AfDB intervention will strengthen the on-going Government and partners (UNICEF, WFP, OCHA, etc.) support in the North East region of the country. The Bank will focus on Borno State where the situation is dire, to rationalize funds and be more efficient.

    This AfDB said; “will contribute to reducing malnutrition rate among the most vulnerable population, mainly children under five years and women of childbearing age.”

    The support aims to contribute to mortality reduction due to Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) of children under five years of age in Borno State by 46% and to the reduction of infant mortality by 20%.

    The specific objectives of the project are to: (i) treat 11,468 children in Borno state with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), (ii) provide 60,000 children 6-23 months in the affected areas with multiple micronutrient powder and (iii) Strengthen sector coordination and monitoring at state level to provide effective coordination of nutrition response.

    To achieve high coverage and quality service delivery of the program, community mobilization, capacity building, coordination and partnership (with International Non-governmental Organizations) and strengthening of information management systems will be employed. In addition, monitoring and introduction of surveillance systems using quarterly surveys and mobile technology for real-time reporting and data collection will be introduced.

    “The nutrition sector in Nigeria estimates a burden of 296,601 cases of SAM in Borno state in 2017. If these children are left untreated, it is envisaged that an estimated 59,320 would die. This intervention will augment efforts at attaining the target to reach 80% of the estimated SAM cases in the region by 2017” AfDB President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina told the Board.

    Nigeria is currently in economic recession which has stretched the Government’s capacity to address vulnerability. Over 2.5 million children under five years are severely malnourished across the country and are 9 times more likely to die than their counterparts. In the midst of these challenges, the humanitarian situation in the North East of Nigeria continues to deteriorate, with an estimated 7 million people in need humanitarian assistance, while about 2.2 million people are internally displaced.

    The conflict in the region continues to restrict farming and other income earning activities due to insecurity. Children and residents in the rural parts are most affected and IDPs continue to be negatively impacted by the food and nutrition deficiencies.

    According to the August 2016 “Cadre Harmonisé analysis” there are 4.4 million food insecure people in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, 3.2 million of them in the Borno state. The conflict has affected the food and health supply systems and left the health sector with very limited health workers available to provide services.

    This intervention is aligned with one of the operational priorities of the Bank’s Ten-Year Strategy, 2013-2022, namely governance and accountability, which is reiterated in two of the High-5s: Feed Africa and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa.

     

  • Recession: AfDB approves $600m support for Nigeria

    Recession: AfDB approves $600m support for Nigeria

    The African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved 600 million dollars loan as the first tranche of a one-billion-dollar budget support to help finance Nigeria’s economic governance, diversification and competitiveness programme.

    The Spokesperson for the bank in Nigeria, Fatima Abubakar, said in a statement that executive directors of the bank approved the facility on Wednesday.

    The last tranche of 400 million dollars will be approved in 2017, Abubakar said.

    The operation is part of a two-year (2016-2017) fiscal programme of support to enable Nigeria to implement reforms to achieve efficiency in government business, combat corruption and promote diversification.

    It will help the government to create fiscal space to facilitate  smooth implementation of its budget, support fiscal and structural reforms and improve social sector spending to protect the most vulnerable segments of the population.

    The facility will also assist the country’s efforts to quickly build a buffer of foreign exchange reserves, which will  contribute to easing pressure on the foreign exchange market and stabilising the naira, she said.

    Nigeria’s success in efforts to achieve macroeconomic stability and economic recovery will signal the end of the current recession.

    An elongation of the recession has the potential to severely affect the economies of neighbouring countries in West and Central Africa, she added.

    Abubakar quoted AfDB President Akinwumi Adesina  as saying: “We must think through innovative solutions to support our regional member countries in crisis situations like this.

    “We must also provide them with the knowledge products they require to get back on track.”

    She added that given Nigeria’s demonstrated commitment to significantly scale up infrastructure investments (30 per cent of the 2016 Budget), the resources would contribute to creating the fiscal space for investments in power, housing and transport.

    These are key sectors for stimulating the strong economic growth required to exit the recession, Abubakar said.

    Nigeria’s economy has been hard hit by a sharp decline in oil prices, which provides the bulk of government revenues and exports although agriculture and services contribute most to GDP.

    Over 90 per cent of Nigeria’s exports and at least 70 per cent of government revenues come from the oil sector, which is projected to have shrunk by 1.6 per cent within the year.

    The economy slipped into a recession in the second half of the year because of foreign currency shortages, sharp reduction in power generation, vandalism of oil installations, lower oil production and weak investor confidence.

    At the end of  December 2015, AfDB’s portfolio comprised 46 operations estimated at 3.01 billion dollars.

    The portfolio consists of 22 public sector operations valued at 1.51 billion dollars or 31 percent of the entire portfolio and 24 private sector projects, estimated at 2.21 billion dollars or 69 percent.

    Adesina had, at recent meeting with President Munhammadu Buhari and economic stakeholders, pledged to provide Nigeria with one billion dollars loan to help it reinvigorate the economy.