President Bola Tinubu, on Monday night, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, advanced negotiations concerning a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure finance facility from the Islamic Development Bank to fund a multi-sectoral portfolio of infrastructure projects at the federal and sub-national levels in Nigeria.
   
The development was the outcome of substantive investment discussions held between President Tinubu and the Vice-President (Country Programs) of the Islamic Development Bank, Dr. Mansur Muhtar, after the President’s return from evening prayers.
   
Noting the historic essence of President Tinubu’s swift and decisive economic reforms, the Vice-President of the Islamic Development Bank said the financial world has been monitoring events in Nigeria and has concluded that Africa’s largest economy means business this time .
   
“The Islamic Development Bank President announced the provision of $50 billion of new investment for the African continent from the Arab Coordination Group (ACG). This was announced at the Saudi-Arab-African Economic Summit. As the largest market and the largest economy in Africa, Nigeria will certainly receive a significant share. We look forward to supporting Nigeria’s economic transformation,” the Islamic Development Bank Vice-President said.

MEANWHILE, the Minister of Finance & Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said if the government succeeds in creating national assets register and putting policies and regulation in place, it will generate $13.3 billion extra revenue each year to the economy.
   
According to him, this will raise the revenue by up to three per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The minister stated this yesterday at the unveiling of Africa investment (Afrinvest) 2023 Nigerian Banking Sector Report with the theme: ‘Getting Nigeria to Work Again!’
   
Edun, who was represented by the Managing Director/CEO, Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), Dr Armstrong Takang, said Nigeria has a plethora of resources across different asset classes that have been lying moribund for years with many of the corporate assets that have not been paying dividends.
   
The minister said the country has significant real estate assets both at home and abroad that are not yielding any revenues for the country, adding that although, they have been used in any way, the utility values are very low. 
   
He noted that the oil and gas assets have been performing sub-optimally for decades with licenses given to people, who have not invested a dime in developing those assets, whereas there are other investors looking to invest in those assets. 
   
Edun also noted that while the ministry’s target is to grow the country’s AUM to N100 trillion, the government must enumerate all the assets that it owns across different asset classes and reintroduce governance, which is fundamental in value creation, as well as monetisation, optimisation, rationalisation.