African Development Bank to invest over three hundred billion naira in Nigeria’s Agro-processing zones

 

ZAKARI ISAH, KADUNA 

The African Development Bank (AfDB), is set to invest over three hundred and fifty billion naira, ($520million) in a specialised Agro-processing zones in Nigeria.

Welcoming the development, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu praised the leader of the multilateral institution, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, for further opening up the economy for investments that provide job opportunities and reduction in poverty.

Receiving Dr Adesina after the two-day Summit on A New Global Financing Pact in Paris, France, President Tinubu, in a statement said the agro-industrial project would strengthens an area of the country’s competitive advantage.

The President urged the continental 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 Dr Adesina that the Federal Government would provide all the necessary assistance to ensure sustenance of the projects, adding that electricity remained a priority area that needed urgent attention.

In his remarks, the AfDB President thanked President Tinubu for the bold initiatives that had repositioned Nigerian economy in three weeks and stimulated appetite of investors from different parts of the world – removal of fuel subsidy and harmonization of exchange rates.