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The Federal
Government is exploring prospects of enlisting the support of the
African Development Bank (ADB) towards the execution of some critical
projects in the country’s power sector.

Olusegun Aganga,
the finance minister, said this on Tuesday, when Donald Kaberuka, the
ADB president, visited him in his office in Abuja.

“We have to take
advantage of the opportunities in the ADB to solve problems facing
African nations. As Africans, we believe that we have to manage our
issues by ourselves through the partnership with ADB,” Mr. Aganga said.

The minister, who
identified the Independent Power Projects (IPPs) as one area that
requires some attention, expressed optimism that the ADB would be able
to join the World Bank in providing the partial risks guarantees to
interest the Independent Power producers.

The finance
ministers and Central Bank governors in five African countries (C-10
Committee) had in its last meeting in Washington to discuss how issues
affecting Africa’s development could be tackled, directed Nigeria,
Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya to get together to explore creative ways
to solve the infrastructural issues affecting the African continent.

The meeting with
the ADB boss, Mr. Aganga explained, was in furtherance of that agenda,
considering the continued supportive disposition of the bank to the
government’s development efforts, particularly with the ongoing reforms
in the country to check the infrastructure deficit in the power sector.

Ineffective institutions

Besides, the
minister said the Primary Mortgage Institutions (PMIs), like Bank of
Industry (BOI), Nigerian Agricultural and Cooperative Banks (NACB),
Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank, and National Economic
Reconstruction Fund (NERFUND), which were established to provide
support to government in the execution of it policies, have not been
living up to expectation.

“All these
institutions were set up by government to help execute government
policies in the different sectors of the economy. But, unfortunately,
government is not seeing the benefits of these institutions at the
moment,” he noted, adding that government is working on ways to ensure
that they become more active in providing finance to the real sector of
the economy of the country’s economy.

“We will see a big
difference and change in how government execute works with the PMIs.
The ADB has worked in so many countries to promote this effort by
sharing ideas to empower them to deliver their mandate to the economy.

“Government has
decided to empower all the banks in the country to work closely with
all these institutions towards the empowerment of Small and Medium
Enterprises (SMEs) and the development of the power infrastructure, to
ensure that they are provided with the support they require to execute
government policies the way they should have been done,” he said.

The ADB president
said he was in the country to, among others, explore ways of working
with the Federal Government to handle the assignment handed by the C-10
in Washington, adding that he was of the conviction that Africa will
come out of the global economic crisis stronger, if its resources are
properly managed to the benefit of the people.

“We are here to
interact with the Federal Government on ways to consolidate on the
achievements so far and to accelerate efforts on the development of
infrastructure in the country,” he said.