Total financing of $1.8bn approved for Nigeria by IsDB – President

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia has approved a total financing of $1.8 billion for funding development programmes in Nigeria.

IsDB President, Dr Mohamed Suleiman Aljasser made this known in Abuja on Monday when meeting with the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed in her office.

The President stressed further that the funding includes $971 million in project financing by the Islamic Development Bank and about $288 million by Islamic Corporation of Development (ICD) its private sector affiliate.

He added that $477 million in trading operations was produced by the trade arm of the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) and $90 million by other Islamic Development Bank Group Funds and operations.

While requesting for Federal Government to give a land to build a permanent office in Abuja, said Nigeria is the largest office outside of the bank’s head office in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

He noted that the bank engaged in other areas like education and health, a reason Aljasser, saying the bank is looking forward to entering the food sector as there is a $10 billion facility Nigeria can benefit from.

The IsDB President said 190km rural roads would be constructed to support Small and Medium Scale farmers in Nigeria, partnering other organisations such as the African Development Bank and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to establish Special Agriculture Processing Zones (SAPZ), across the country.

Aljasser added that the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), its investment guarantee arm has provided $1.1 billion as business insured and $1 billion as a new insurance commitment to help attract businesses and insure them.

“With the IsDB active portfolio in Nigeria standing now at $1.2 billion and we have completed about 55 percent of all of those projects.

“And we look forward to strengthen relations on bilateral relations. Out of the 36 states in Nigeria, IsDB has investments in 16 states. I applaud the federal government of Nigeria for emphasizing the diversification of the economy,” he said.

The President stressed that the bank will try to boost activities of private sector, activities of the private arm of the IsDB to assist the development of the private sector and the economic diversification programme of the government.

“The IsDB is keen to continue to engage Nigeria on its strategic priorities areas such as economic and social infrastructure, and advisory support for strengthening Islamic financial services.

“IsDB is committed to supporting Nigeria to deal with the recovery phase of COVID-19 including providing the necessary support to the private sector to create and revive economic growth”, he said.

Earlier, the Finance, Budget and National Planning Minister, Zainab Ahmed welcomed the IsDB President and his delegation to Nigeria, adding that the purpose of the visit is to strengthen collaboration between the Bank and Nigeria.

“It would also serve as an avenue to discuss the IsDB Group’s Strategy Update and Alignment and Member Country Partnership Strategy (MCPS) for the period 2023-2025 anchored on Nigeria’s Medium-Term National Development Plan (MTNDP) 2021-2025 among others”.

The Minister noted Nigeria became a regional operational hub of the Bank in Africa in 2017 and as the Islamic Bank expanded its existing country gateway office in Abuja, to serve as a key regional office.

Ahmed explained the Regional office coordinates the operations of the Bank in its West and Central African member-countries, which constitute a majority of the 27 African countries in the Institution, notably Nigeria, Gabon, Niger, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, the Republic of Cameroon, Uganda, Senegal, Djibouti and Guinea Bissau, among others.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) is Multilateral Financial Institution established to foster the economic development and social progress of its 56 member Countries and Nigeria is currently the 4th largest shareholder with 8.75% share that entitled it to have a permanent seat on the board of Executive Directors.