Nigeria is to get the biggest cut among African States from a $93 billion financial package from the International Development Association (IDA).
The fund, which is geared towards a robust and resilient economy for Africa, is the largest financial package ever mobilised in the history of the IDA.
According to a statement by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, this came to the fore when President Muhammadu Buhari joined other African leaders at an event in Dakar, Senegal, to launch the fund.
According to him, 70 per cent of the global fund will be spent on African countries between now and 2027.
Speaking at the event convened by Macky Sall, the President of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of the African Union, President Buhari, in his submission at the Opening Dialogue of African Heads of State on Development Challenges and Priorities at the International Development Association (IDA) Summit for Africa, pointed out that in view of the current challenges faced by world economies, the Nigerian government is determined to ensure that the economy is able to withstand the shocks by building a resilient economy capable of creating jobs.
This, according to him, will be achieved by looking inwards and adding value to the commodities produced in the country.
He, therefore, called on global partners for concerted efforts to help in the realisation of these objectives.
“I wish to therefore call for concerted global efforts to mitigate and sustain food systems. These efforts must involve key stakeholders, including Governments, Farmers, Investors, Multilateral Organisations, Regional Bodies, International Financial Institutions, Private Partners and Civil Societies. As African countries continue to grapple with the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and now the Russian-Ukraine war, the continued support from the World Bank Group, particularly from the IDA is critical to help us meet financial needs.”
He noted however, that Nigeria’s priority amidst these global challenges is to build the resilience of our economy and drive jobs-rich growth.
“Therefore, our focus is on the transformative scale-up of industrialisation, to be driven by Backward Integration and Export Development based on value-addition to key commodities and access to new markets.”
Buhari said to achieve these priorities, it was imperative for the country to continue to build partnerships and global solidarity that will address the challenges of the most vulnerable population and look forward to stronger collaboration among members of the International Development Association.
He expressed confidence that the Summit will build on the Abidjan Declaration of 2021 and comprehensively address the debilitating effects of COVID-19, Climate change, insurgency and lately, the war in Ukraine.
The situation,” he stressed, “has been particularly difficult for us in Africa, as the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have continued to increase our development challenges, with many countries on the continent experiencing a prolonged severe food crisis, dwindling government revenue, rising levels of unemployment, widening infrastructural needs over the past three years and the consequences of a preponderant debt burden, in efforts to mitigate these problems.”
He commended the World Bank and the IDA for their interventionist programmes designed to address areas germane to the African continent like Agriculture, Technological Innovation and Gender Matters among others, aligning “with Nigeria’s post-COVID-19 Economic Sustainability Plan, which has a major component, called the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Programme, where we seek to leverage suitable technologies to build a resilient food system for the country.
The President lamented the disastrous effects of climate change on the African continent, urging for the sustenance of collective efforts to build climate resilient economies, specifically recommending for consideration, “the funding of a project to recharge Lake Chad from the Ubangi River. This lake has shrunk by ninety-percent over the years and caused incalculable damage to the socio-economic fabric of the 30 million inhabitants around the lake.”
On the debt issue, President Buhari said that developing countries which had faced unsustainable debt burdens even before the pandemic, are now dealing with a new wave of deepening debt as vital public financial resources are allocated to external debt servicing and repayments, at the expense of domestic financing for critical developmental needs.
President Buhari, who was later conferred with the highest National Honour of the Republic of Senegal, “L’ Ordre National De Lion Senegal (The National Order of the Senegal Lion) thanked his host, President Macky Sall, for the honour, extolling the excellent diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Senegal which have spanned over sixty years having started informal interactions for a longer period.
