The International Finance Corporation (IFC) on Monday said it would invest $1.5 billion (about N246bn) to support housing and infrastructure development in Nigeria.
Jim-Yong Cai, the Executive Vice President of IFC, who disclosed this known to newsmen in Abuja shortly after a private meeting with the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, said that the investment would focus on housing, transport and other infrastructure, especially power.
“IFC has been following what is happening in key sectors of the Nigeria’s economy and we are encouraged to join in the investment in some of them, especially housing which is important in providing homes to many citizens. We are very committed to enlarge our commitment and scale up our investment in Nigeria,” he said.
Solomon Adegbie-Quaynor, IFC Country Manager in Nigeria, said that $255 million (about N39.82 billion) of the proposed investment in the country would go to Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company.
“The opportunity the IFC is going to bring is going to be much, but ultimately it is to make sure that NMRC as an institution is sustained. We are going to help in the area of public governance, formal under writing standards, among others,” he said.
Adegbie-Quaynor added that IFC would key into what the World Bank was already doing to improve the environment and other issues in the housing sector.
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