The African Development Bank, AfDB, on Monday, September 26, said it will support Nigeria with $1 billion facility to finance the deficits in the 2016 budget.
AfDB President, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina told newsmen after a meeting with Vice President and other members of the Economic Management Team (EMT) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja that with Nigeria as the largest shareholder of the bank, the bank was ready to offer its strong support to the country as it faces tough time.
He said: “African Development Bank, AfDB,, we have a very strong delegation team to meet Vice President and the economic management team. The bank’s 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,” he said.
“I think the times are difficult and 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 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. “I’m not here to lecture the Nigerian government. I’m here to support very strongly.”
He said the bank will 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 of $1 billion to help to deal with that particular deficit.
