By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Nigeria has approached the African Development Bank (AFDB) for Budget Support Loan of $1 billion, the Africa lender said on Tuesday.
“During the High-Level Mission conducted by the Bank to Nigeria last week to strengthen the policy dialogue on how best the Bank can provide assistance to support the priorities set by the Government, the delegation held discussions with the Government authorities on the proposed policy-based loan,” AFdB added.
The Africa Bank said it was considering the loan and envisaged that an appraisal mission will be in Abuja soon to work with the authorities and major stakeholders on this operation.
“The loan, when approved, will provide a good platform for policy dialogue to support the implementation of critical macroeconomic and sectoral reforms, which have been initiated by the Government,” the AFDB said.
This is coming on the heels of reports by Reuters quoting Kemi Adeosun, finance minister that Nigeria has held exploratory talks with the World Bank to borrow in order to help fund a record budget in 2016.
The report added that Nigeria is planning to borrow as much as $5 billion to help fund a budget deficit due to a slump in vital oil revenues, of which $4 billion might come from international institutions and the rest from Eurobonds, Adeosun said earlier in January.
“We have held exploratory talks with the World Bank. We have not applied for emergency loans,” the Nigeria’s finance minister was quoted by Reuters as saying.
