TheCable

Lamin Barrow, director-general (DG) of Nigeria’s country department of the African Development Bank (AfDB) says the company has invested $4.4 billion in Nigeria.

Barrow said the sum is one of the largest among the regional member countries (RMCs).

He spoke at the joint country portfolio performance review (CPPR) workshop in Abuja on Friday.

Barrow said the financial support comprises 48 operations fairly and evenly distributed between public and private sector operations.

He said some of the portfolio performance metrics have improved since the 2022 CPPR workshop.

“In particular, operations flagged for implementation challenges decreased from 36 percent in January to 32 percent in September,” Barrow said. 

“This is a result of collective efforts from the federal ministry of finance, the executing agencies, and the bank to reduce start-up and implementation delays.

“Indeed, the time taken to meet loan effectiveness and first disbursement conditions tend to be excessive. Let me acknowledge the unprecedented recent development with the FEC approval of the Ekiti knowledge zone project.”

Barrow said the share of startup delays had been reduced from 32 percent of flagged operations in June 2023 to 28 percent in October.

The DG added that the delays are expected to reach 8 percent by the end of 2023 with timely and targeted actions for some projects.

He said despite the progress, the bank was yet to hit its target for flagged operations of 20 percent.

“Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, annual disbursements have gradually increased; from UA 93 million in 2021 to UA 143 million in 2022 and are projected to reach UA165 million by the end of December,” Barrow said.

Also speaking, Stanley George, director of the international economic relations department (IERD), ministry of finance, commended AfDB’s partnership towards achieving Nigeria’s national development priorities.

George, however, said there are challenges preventing seamless implementations of the portfolio. 

Listed some of the challenges, he mentioned long implementation periods, low disbursement rates, poor communication with the various ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs), and issues of ineligible expenditures.

“The portfolio of over $4 billion is a loan to be paid by our children and grandchildren. The least we can do for them is to ensure that these projects are implemented in a timely manner,” he said. 

George added that the funds and projects executed will go a long way to improve the quality of lives of the people.