President Muhammadu Buhari has sanctioned moves by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to hold a financing roundtable in Abuja. He accented to IDB’s plan to raise more funds for investment and development of infrastructure in Nigeria on Thursday in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

This was made known via a statement released by the Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu who disclosed that the offer was made by IDB president, Dr Ahmed Mohammed Ali who met with Buhari during his recent official visit to Saudi Arabia.

Also, Buhari welcomed IDB’s plan to commence the Bilingual Education Programme that will integrate the Almajiri system of education with western education in Nigeria. The bank already provides US$ 98 million for the Bilingual Education Programme in Adamawa, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Osun and Yobe.

According to the statement, the IDB president promised President Buhari that the organisation will work with the Saudi Fund, the Kuwait Fund, Arab Bank for Development in Africa and the Abu Dhabi Fund, who are its traditional partners, to increase the quantum of funding available to Nigeria.

Buhari accepted the offer and repeated his government’s resolve to diversify the Nigerian economy from overdependence on oil.

He said:

“The days of Nigeria as a big oil producer with plenty of money are gone. We need all the support we can get to diversify our economy as quickly as possible.
“We also need to rehabilitate our infrastructure, develop the domestic capacity to feed ourselves and export the surplus.”

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