* proposes medical park for FCT
The federal government has released over N460 billion for capital project from 2018 budget, the minister for Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma has said.
The minister spoke to journalist on the sideline of the ongoing annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
He said: “We expect that by the end of this year, we will be growing by 2.1%, things are going well in Nigeria, not as well as we want to be, we are working hard to improve things.
“We are in stronger position than 2015. Our foreign reserves are $44 billion and we have a trading surplus whilest our imports are not increasing; we have been able to manage those imports. All the indices are positive.”
Similarly, the minister of Finance, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, disclosed that they has discussed the setting up of a medical park in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
Ahmed said: “We also discussed setting up some industrial parks in partnership with the federal ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in three centres – Lekki, Kano and Kaduna.
“The engagement also explored the possibility of increasing our shareholding and also we discussed some of the programmes and projects Afreximbank is supporting in Nigeria.”
She added: “Afriexim has a very large portfolio in Nigeria; about 40% of their portfolio is Nigeria. They provide support to the government but largely to the private sector.”
Speaking on raising the federal government stake at the bank, she said, “When we have a consensus, we will join. That discussion is being driven by the federal ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment. That we will need to consider increasing our shareholding in the bank because there is a lot of value that we are getting from Afreximbank.”
The president of Afreximbank, Dr Benedict Oromah, said Nigeria is still a major shareholder of the bank although of recent it has fallen back in terms of its relative position.
“Every holding of Nigeria is a Nigerian affair in terms of the Nigerian government, they are number three today. They always have been number one or number two. Egypt and Zimbabwe are number one and two now. In terms of business in Nigeria, we have exposure of more than $3.2 billion,” he said.
