EU lists Nigeria among beneficiaries of €44bn soft loan

Nigeria has been listed in the category A countries, alongside Ghana and Egypt that will tap from the European Union (EU) €44 billion soft loan aimed at lifting African economic development programmes.

The loan with a long term repayment agreement of 10 years with moratorium, will be specifically targeted at some key areas of the economies of the benefitting countries, said the union.

Sources said the loan facility, which is billed to be harnessed between 2017 and 2018, is to enable the qualified member- countries within the African Union (AU) to attain some level of growth in some select areas, including technology, Agro-based industry and commerce will be monitored by EU.

The news about the loan was first disclosed to newsmen in Lagos on Friday, by EU Vice President, EU, Andrus Ansip, who said qualified countries had been shown the strategic framework for deploying the funds , as well as being guided on designing the security measures to ensure the fund is effectively and efficiently disbursed.

He said the EU, moved by the desire of developing countries in Africa to attract more foreign direct investments (FDI) had programmes designed to help them have a fertile ground for more investments to come from all parts of the world.

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According to him: “We have decided to create the European external investment fund which is targeted at covering main risks to attract private investment. This kind of fund was really efficient in the European union (EU) where we created investment for strategic investment and we believe this fund will go a long way to help the African economy.”

He said one of the specialized areas that needs emphasizing growth in the continent is the digital development, which has been the main force of enhancing economic growth in the developed world.

He commended the efforts so far made in some countries, including Nigeria to rely on digital technology in growing all sectors of its economy, noting that EU is impressed that about 80 per of Nigerians now have access to Internet services.

But a spokesman of Debt Management Office, Silas Wahiri, when contacted stated that many institutions and countries have been approaching Nigeria for various types of loans facilities.

“Every positive move is received by government on its merit; hence EU and other multinational bodies are partners in progress as far as the effort at revamping the economy is concerned”, he said.

But he refused to link the loan with the $29.34 billion total loan facilities, which President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has before the National Assembly for approval.

 

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