By Mike Aladenika.
The first official international engagement of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu in France may have come and gone but the relics of it lingers, if the outcome of the meeting between Nigeria's president and the President, African Development Bank(AfDB) is anything to go by.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's nod for an investment of $520 million in Specialised Agro-Processing Zones, SAPZ, by the African Development Bank (AfDB) is the much desired political will needed to actualize the project which past administrations have treated with disdain and kid glove.
President Bola Tinubu, during his meeting with Adewunmi Adesina, president Africa Develoment Bank, AfDB, praised him for further opening up the economy for investments that provides job opportunities and poverty reduction.
President Tinubu said the agro-industrial project strengthens an area of the country’s competitive advantage as he listed other areas of priority that require Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
The Nigerian leader urged the bank to inject funds into projects that target women and youth empowerment, while appreciating the AfDB president for his vision of setting up a Youth Entrepreneurship Bank in Nigeria that will provide credit, skills and other support for young Nigerians.
President Tinubu assured the Nigerian-born AfDB President that the federal government would provide all the necessary assistance to ensure the sustenance of the projects, adding that electricity remained a priority area that needed urgent attention.
In his remarks, the AfDB president thanked President Bola Tinubu for the bold initiatives taken so far which has repositioned the Nigerian economy in three weeks and stimulated investors’ appetite from different parts of the world; removal of fuel subsidy and harmonisation of exchange rates.
“I commend the president’s foresight, boldness and determination for macroeconomic policy direction by removing the fuel subsidy,’’ he said. “No bird can fly with its wings tied behind. All those steps are signals investors like.’’
Mr Adesina said the bank would support the new administration’s economic policies in Nigeria, which had placed the people first in development targets.
Nigeria and the AfDB are both looking out to a more robust relationship that would help to grow the nation's economy, generate productivity, encourage industrialisation, strengthen manpower development and also improve Nigeria's foreign exchange earnings.
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