IFC TO SEND MISSION TO NIGERIA TO EXPLORE INVESTMENT IN LIVESTOCK, ENERGY, HOUSING
The International Finance Corporation Managing Director Diop Makhtar jas announced that the organization will immediately send a mission to Nigeria to explore scalable investment structures aimed at unlocking private capital in livestock, energy, and housing,
Makhtar announced the plan in Kigali. Rwanda on Tuesday during a meeting with President Bola Tinubu on the sidelines of the 13th Africa CEO Summit. Makhtar led an IFC delegation that included Regional Vice President for Africa Ethiopis Tafara and Director for Central Africa and Nigeria Dahlia Khalifa. He said the corporation wanted to discuss modalities for collaboration across the three sectors.
Makhtar praised Tinubu’s reforms, particularly the removal of the fuel subsidy and the harmonisation of the exchange rate, calling the process “courageous and transformative” and saying it sent a strong signal to international 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.
Tinubu reaffirmed Nigeria’s openness to private capital for institutional development and urged African pension funds to evolve into strategic instruments for infrastructure and productive-sector investment. He stressed the need to mobilise African institutional capital, decentralise energy systems, and strengthen regional interconnectivity and transmission lines to attract private investment and support industrialisation. “If you want Africa to leapfrog, then energy transmission and decentralisation are important. The funding gap is there, and we must work together,” he said.
The meeting also discussed mechanisms such as institutional investors, local currency financing structures, and swap arrangements to deepen infrastructure funding. Makhtar noted that local currency facilities and banking partnerships, including with Nigerian institutions like Access Bank, could strengthen interstate financial integration and trade across the continent.
