IFC to deploy team to Nigeria for investments in livestock, energy, housing

From Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is set to dispatch a high-level mission to Nigeria to explore scalable investment frameworks in the livestock, energy and housing sectors, its Managing Director, Makhtar Diop, announced on Thursday.

The disclosure came during a sideline meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the 13th Africa CEO Forum Summit in Kigali, Rwanda, according to a statement issued by the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

Diop led an IFC delegation including Ethiopis Tafara, Regional Vice President for Africa, and Dahlia Khalifa, Director for Central Africa and Nigeria.

Diop praised Tinubu’s reform drive, particularly the fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification, calling them “courageous and transformative” signals to global investors.

“President Tinubu, you have been so courageous in removing the subsidy. When you did it, I said to myself, President Tinubu took the bull by the horns,” he said.

Diop stressed the need for collective action for an “African Renaissance” anchored on strong institutions.

President Tinubu, in response, reiterated Nigeria’s readiness to tap private capital for development. He urged African pension funds to evolve as strategic tools for infrastructure and productive investments, while calling for the mobilisation of continental capital to drive energy transitions and industrialisation.

“If you want Africa to leapfrog, then energy transmission and decentralisation are important. The funding gap is there, and we must work together,” Tinubu stated.

Discussions, according to the statement, covered local currency financing, swap mechanisms, and partnerships with Nigerian banks like Access Bank to boost regional integration and trade.