Adesina offers economic help to Tinubu in Nigeria
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Pmnewsnigeria
Akinwumi Adesina, former president of the African Development Bank, offered to help Nigeria with its economic development during a meeting with Bola Tinubu. He said the bank had financed the country to the tune of $7 billion between 2015 and 2025, according to his remarks reported by Pmnewsnigeria.
Former African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina offered to help Nigeria support its economic development after visiting President Bola Tinubu in Abuja on Tuesday. He said he was ready to contribute “in any capacity” deemed useful, Nigerian News Agency (NAN) reports.
Adesina said the AfDB had provided about $7 billion in financing to Nigeria between 2015 and 2025, nearly 63% of its total financing to the country since it began operations in 1971. The cumulative amount since then stands at $11.1 billion, according to the former president.
He praised Tinubu’s macroeconomic reforms, particularly the removal of fuel subsidies and the unification of exchange rates, which he described as difficult but necessary. He said they were contributing to greater availability of foreign currency, the return of portfolio investors and falling inflation.
Adesina nevertheless called for a move beyond economic stabilisation towards structural transformation, so that the population could benefit from the gains of the reforms. He said he was not seeking a position and wanted to help his country wherever his contribution was considered necessary.
The meeting comes as Tinubu defends the removal of fuel subsidies, a measure praised by Adesina, and Vice-President Kashim Shettima has rejected their reinstatement. The debate over this policy has continued in statements on fuel subsidies in Nigeria and Shettima’s rejection of their return.
