Nigeria's economy: Focus more on National Development Plan – Official to AfDB

AfDB

African Development Bank (AfDB)

African Development Bank (AfDB)

Mr Aliyu Ahmed, Director, International Economic Relations, Federal Ministry of Finance, has urged the African Development Bank (AfDB) to focus more on Nigeria’s National Development Plan and the ERGP in its intervention programmes to help grow the country’s economy.

Ahmed on the sideline of the AfDB’s Annual Meetings in Busan, South Korea, that the specific areas of intervention had already been articulated in both plans.

“The areas are there as our priorities for medium and long-term planning and we want them to focus on them like energy, agriculture and infrastructure.”

He said the bank might not be able to do all “due to their constraints in most of the countries.

“That is why they (AfDB) are asking for a capital increase from member countries and if that is done, they (bank) will be able to support Africa and diversify to next level, to do a lot more and go beyond current slow approach”.

Related News

Ahmed, however, said the bank operations needed to be faster and speed up interventions to hasten implementation of projects.

“They (AfDB) can do a lot more in the speed of intervention because sometimes in the life of an administration that has four years if you take over one and half years to prepare a project before implementation and seeing it to fruition, it constitutes a serious challenge.”

He said such challenge might arise because the administration could run out.

“But if you are lucky to have a second term, you can implement but not all are so lucky because most of their interventions are at federal and state levels.

“State governors need to deliver within the span of their administration so it is good for them (AfDB) to be faster, nimble and less bureaucratic in project delivery, ” the director said.

Load more