African Development Bank to bailout Nigeria from Recession

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The African Development Bank has announced that it will seek to bail out Nigeria with a $4.1 billion loan (3.6 billion euros) over the next two years and $10 billion by 2019.

Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) who is on a three day visit to Nigeria, said he would go to the pan-African lender's board next month to seek approval for an initial $1 billion loan for Nigeria as the country grapples with its first recession in more than 20 years.

The money will help Nigeria revamp its power and agricultural sectors and also develop its infrastructure. It is his first official visit to the country since his appointment as president of AfDB last year.
The loan also comes at a time when Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, has been going through a recession due to the fall in oil prices. In addition, its currency is falling, inflation is above 17 percent and the country is suffering from a lack of foreign currency.


Adesina, a former Nigerian agriculture minister, said that the loans will move the country away from a reliance on oil revenue and focus on other productive sectors like agriculture and agro-industrial sectors and to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), an important job creator.
"What is needed is not only to spend your way out of the recession but to also incentivize your way out of the recession," Adesina told a news conference following his meetings with President Muhammadu Buhari and his Economic Management Team.


Nigeria’s Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said that the loan has been a great economic relief to the country and that most of the sectors that the bank is focusing on are the very sectors that Nigeria would like to focus on to grow its economy.
"What we have to do is to make sure that the money we borrow is used on the key infrastructure that will drive the economy," Adeosun said.