EU, Nigeria Strengthen Partnership With N320.5bn Credit Support For Agriculture

The European Union’s improvement practice with Nigeria has been strengthened by a N320.5 cardinal (EUR 190 million) recognition enactment allocated to Nigerian commercialized banks and fiscal institutions to broaden their lending to the cultivation sector.

The facility, which the European Investment Bank is providing, was announced astatine a gathering of the bank’s elder executives and a delegation from the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, connected the sidelines of the precocious concluded Global Gateway Forum successful Brussels, Belgium, according to a connection from the ministry.

Expressing the EU’s committedness to enactment Nigeria’s ambitions and initiatives for integer transformation, fixed its imaginable to catalyse maturation successful different sectors of the economy, the bank’s manager (International Partnerships), Ms Thourayya Tricki, said the recognition installation was portion of the EU’s committedness to the improvement of Nigeria’s cultivation worth chains, peculiarly successful cocoa and dairy.

Tricki, who attended the bilateral gathering alongside the bank’s caput (Sub-Saharan Africa Relations), Mr Diedrick Zambon, stated that the Nigerian concern bundle for climate-smart cultivation accumulation and processing is astatine an precocious stage. It aims to guarantee the sustainability and competitiveness of agri-food products.

She explained that the bundle includes recognition lines and method assistance to applicable Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and commercialized banks successful Nigeria to grow their lending portfolios to the cultivation subsector.

Nigeria already benefits from a EUR 18 cardinal Technical Assistance assistance to fortify the regulatory model and capableness for vaccine manufacturing and a EUR 50m installation to grow its recognition portfolio for the pharmaceutical industry.

The Nigerian delegation, including the peculiar adjunct to the minister, Bolaji Onalaja, and the Focal Officer, EU Unit, Benjamin Galadima, highlighted ongoing reforms nether President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the forthcoming National Development Plan (2026–2030) arsenic frameworks for attracting sustainable investments and strengthening community-level improvement done the Ward-Based Development Programme.

The Nigerian squad besides engaged successful a bid of high-level sessions and conducted bilateral meetings with cardinal EU institutions, including officials from the Directorate of International Partnerships (INTPA) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, expressed Nigeria’s appreciation to Ambassador Gauthier Mignot, Head of the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, for the fantabulous facilitation of Nigeria’s information astatine the 2025 Global Gateway Forum.

The Global Gateway Forum is the starring level for turning the Global Gateway Investment Package into actionable partnerships and viable projects. It unites governments, improvement concern institutions, and the backstage assemblage to coordinate priorities, mobilise resources, and velocity up sustainable investments that heighten connectivity, greenish transition, integer transformation, and quality superior improvement crossed spouse regions.

President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, reaffirmed the EU’s committedness to processing mutually beneficial partnerships based connected trust, sustainability, and shared prosperity nether the Global Gateway Strategy. She announced the enlargement of the Global Gateway Investment Package to €400 cardinal and the instauration of a dedicated Investment Hub to facilitate improved transactions and accelerate task transportation crossed spouse regions, particularly successful Africa.