Juliana Taiwo-Obalonye, Abuja
In his effort to address the country’s infrastructure deficit, President Muhammadu Buhari, has indicated interest on how Nigeria can key into the new United States International Development Finance Corporation (USIDFC), which provides about $60 billion for investments in developing nations.
He has therefore expressed the willingness of his administration to mobilise additional capital from development finance institutions for the upgrade of critical infrastructure in the country.
The President stated this when he met with U.S Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin in Riyadh on Wednesday at the margins of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) forum, where they had fruitful discussions on investments in Nigeria under the new financing portfolio for developing nations. According to a statement by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, Buhari said Nigeria will leverage the U.S facility to address some of the challenges confronting its power sector as well as general infrastructure upgrade.
The President thanked the U.S government for supporting Nigeria’s anti-terrorism efforts.
Buhari and Mnuchin also discussed ways of strengthening Nigeria’s ongoing collaboration with the United States on stopping terrorist financing.
Mnuchin was accompanied by Brent Macintosh, Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and Marshall Billingslea, Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing in the United States Treasury Department.
The Treasury Secretary used the occasion to introduce Macintosh who was recently promoted Under Secretary for International Affairs by President Trump after the previous Under Secretary, David Malpass was elected President of the World Bank.
The Nigerian leader congratulated Macintosh on his elevation and requested for his continued support to Nigeria especially in accessing the $60 billion infrastructure fund under the USIDFC.