The Federal Government has reached an agreement with the World Bank Group and other development partners for the release of $1.3bn for the take-off of the Development Bank of Nigeria.

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, said thisin Washington DC, United States of America at the closing press conference marking the end of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund’s annual meetings.

Adeosun said the agreement was reached on final steps on the release of U$1.3 billion from the World Bank Group and other development partners for the take-off of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN).

She said DBN would serve as a conduit for intervention for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as part of our efforts to achieve inclusive growth.

Another area that got attention was the power sector as the Minister disclosed that agreement was reached to host a workshop on assessing solutions to the financial challenges in the power sector in Nigeria. “The workshop is expected to bring together all critical stakeholders including the Ministry of Power, NNPC, NBET, NERC, Generation Companies (Gencos), Distribution Companies (Discos), CBN, Banks other key players in the sector. Development partners including the World Bank Group are also expected to participate in the workshop being convened,” she stated.

“The delegation met with the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and secured their commitments in facilitating trade and investment in Nigeria. Specifically, they have agreed to invest in the agro – fisheries sector in Nigeria and made progress on the Jebba Hydro project,” the Minister said.

Mrs Adeosun stated “Our constituency countries, including Angola and South Africa in addition to Nigeria agreed to strengthen co-operation with a view to, in particular, exploring how best to position our counties to benefit from current funding options in the Multilateral Finance Institutions (MFIs), as well as the additional anticipated innovative financing mechanisms in the near term. The scope of co-operation will include technical benchmarking and peer review. A joint stakeholder meeting, to be hosted in Abuja is being planned for March, 2017.”

She said that Commitment from Canada was secured to assist Nigeria in the provision of Technical Assistance and other advisory services to enhance the delivery of projects using the Private Public Partnership (PPP) model

The delegation also presented the Family Homes Fund, an affordable housing initiative, to a number of prospective development partners including the World Bank Group, IFC, MIGA and IDB, and received indicative interest, which we would be pursuing.
She stated that the Federal Government would continue to pursue technical assistance from the IMF in the areas of domestic revenue mobilization and online training.