By Charles Adingupu
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s effort to knock Nigeria’s economy into shape received a great boost recently as the African Development Bank (AFDB) pledged to complement his efforts in revamping it.
The AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, assured the President that the Bank will help him realize his vision to improve the agriculture and power sectors in Nigeria.
Dr. Adesina who was speaking after a meeting with President Tinubu on the sidelines of the New Global Financing Pact summit hosted by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris, France,
said it was a great opportunity for him to see Tinubu to personally commend him for the thoughts and ideas he has brought to the summit in Paris, and also discuss so many things.
“I discussed with His Excellency the President about a couple of things, first of all, agriculture, to see what we can do to support the government with regard to Mr. President’s vision in agriculture.
“We discussed special agroindustrial processing zones, for which we already have about $520 million for Nigeria, and how we are going to make sure that that project actually gets accelerated.
“The other one that we talked about is the power sector, how we will bring support to his effort, his vision, and that of his government with regard to access.
“The President wants to ensure that there is access to electricity in Nigeria, and therefore he talked to us about how we can support him, and I gave him the assurance that we will significantly support the power sector in Nigeria,” Adesina said.
The AfDB boss also commended the Nigerian leader for his boldness, vision, and determination with regard to macroeconomic stability and fiscal stability for Nigeria.
He noted that the removal of the fuel subsidy by Tinubu will help Nigeria significantly, adding that the forex unification will also free up access to forex and also make Nigeria’s currency much more competitive in terms of exporting the things that the country produces.
Adesina said the recent moves by Tinubu are sending the right signals to investors and the international community and will soon attract a significant amount of investment into Nigeria.
