Gates Foundation to pay Nigeria’s polio debt of $76 million

diamond hope

January 18, 2018 2:00 PM

Nigeria has recently celebrated a year of no reported cases of polio and now their debt is being repaid.

On Tuesday, January 9, 2018, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the Minister of Finance said in Abuja at a meeting with a delegation of Japanese House of Councillors Parliamentarians that Nigeria has authorized Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to start the repayment of $76 million polio eradication loan to Japan.

She said that the authority to trigger repayment was given to Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation following the eradication of polio in the country. She also said that the eradication of polio was made possible as a result of the Overseas Development Assistance (ODAs) facility provided by the Japanese Government valued at $76 million in 2014.

She recalled that the ODA was structured for repayment after four years and that by this development, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation would start repaying the facility to Japan in 2018.

Adeosun while marketing Nigeria to the Japanese delegation noted that Nigeria was fast growing and evolving from negative areas to positive areas through its determined fight against corruption.

She added that because, "Nigeria is a middle-income country, we will require the expertise of Japanese companies for infrastructure development. Nigeria is a good place to invest because it is a rising investment destination. I promise that the government will make life easy for Japanese investors wishing to do business in Nigeria."

In his address, the leader of the delegation, Mr. Kiyoshi Ejima, described Nigeria as a powerhouse with rich natural resources with which Japan tried to strengthen the relationship with. Nigeria, he said, had set the target of becoming one of the top 20 economies by the year 2020 and he assured that "Japan will support Nigeria toward realizing its 2020 target."

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