The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has said that Nigeria risks losing its seat on the Board of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and its membership of the bank due to failure to pay its dues.
The bank has allegedly issued several warnings to this effect which the Ministry of Finance has failed to comply.
The Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, in a statement on Friday said that the discovery is a sad reflection of the bureaucratic bottleneck often associated with some ministries and government agencies in the country.
According to him, the first casualty is that Nigeria will be unable to access and benefit from the $180 million IDB renewable energy project to six African countries as part of a broad strategy to deepen its involvement in the region.
He said while the IDB was established in December 1973, the Nigerian office in Abuja was only opened on 22nd August, 2016 adding that the bank has been of immense economic benefit to its 57-member countries.
“Its soft loans have been known to rubber-cushion the effect of harsh financial policies of other international institutions like the IMF and World Bank. The IDB has launched a programme to release $180 million in financing to six African countries for renewable energy projects as part of a broad strategy to deepen its involvement in the region. The IDB set aside about $2billion dollars (about N310bn) in support of Nigeria’s developmental programmes which spanned three years (2012-2014). Nigeria also received $670million interest-free loan from the IDB in 2012.
“Not only that, IDB has successfully financed a number of infrastructural development projects in Nigeria in recent times. These include the $65 million Ilesha Water Supply and Sanitation project in Osun State, the $43 million 300-bed hospital project in Kaduna State and the $7 million Zaria Water Supply Expansion Project. Also, the National Programme for Food Security funded by IDB, which was designed to reduce rural poverty through enhancing farmers’ access to extension advisory support for greater productivity, was successfully implemented in Anambra, Gombe and Yobe States,” Akintola said.
He said that even now, discussions are on-going with the bank to conclude and implement several other programmes beneficial to Nigeria, including the $98 million Bilingual Education Project which will provide almajiri access to basic education and vocational skills in Osun, Nasarawa, Niger, Kwara, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe, Borno and Adamawa states.
He said in September 2017, Ebonyi State received $150 million from the IDB to boost health facilities and enable the state governor to reconstruct over 198km roads, known as ring roads, which cut across eight local government areas of the state.
While urging the Federal Government to come clean on the development, Akintola warned that all the above projects may stop if Nigeria fails to pay its due on or before December 31, 2017 apart from possible loss of the nation’s 7.66 percent share capital.
