The Federal Executive Council has approved Nigeria’s full accession to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a move government officials say will deepen international economic cooperation and unlock funding for key infrastructure projects.
The approval formalizes Nigeria’s status as a non-regional member of the China-backed multilateral lender, joining over 100 countries, including several from Europe and Africa. Nigeria received an invitation to join the AIIB in 2021 and has now completed the legal and financial obligations necessary for admission.
Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, who presented the accession memo, confirmed that Nigeria subscribed to 50 shares in the institution at $100,000 per share, amounting to a $5 million equity stake. He described the membership as a step toward attracting low-interest, long-term capital for roads, power, transportation, and other public infrastructure.
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“We’ve concluded that process now, and we are fully-fledged members of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank,” Edun told reporters. “It is set up to promote infrastructure development and sustained economic growth in all its members.”
Is It More About Access to Loans Than Reform?
Beneath the official optimism lies growing public concern that Nigeria’s real motivation is to deepen its access to external borrowing—a path that has placed a significant part of the country’s future at the mercy of creditors and undermined its ability to fund homegrown development initiatives.
Analysts and economists are already sounding the alarm. While multilateral institutions like AIIB can serve as valuable partners in infrastructure development, Nigeria’s track record with concessional loans and foreign partnerships has been checkered with failed projects, opaque procurement practices, and rising debt servicing obligations.
Against this backdrop, two of Africa’s most respected voices in international economics—Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, and Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization, have both repeatedly warned that African countries must shift away from a dependency on loans and aid.
Adesina has been especially blunt, arguing that the continent is “not poor” but “impoverished by its failure to harness its wealth.” He has urged countries like Nigeria to develop their vast natural resources, rather than constantly seeking loans to finance infrastructure that does not yield returns.
Similarly, Okonjo-Iweala has cautioned against reliance on debt and aid, pushing instead for deeper investments in local industries, regional trade, and export diversification. At recent forums, both have lamented the pattern of African states, including Nigeria, taking on debt while doing little to improve domestic productivity or reduce import dependency.
“Africa really needs to change its mindset about access to aid. We should begin to see it as a thing of the past.”
“Instead of looking outward for financial support, we must strengthen our own institutions,” she urged.
The Debt Burden and Infrastructure Deficit
Nigeria’s public debt stood at approximately N144.67 trillion (US$91.46 billion) in Q1 2024. This represents a growth of 24.99% quarter-on-quarter from N97.34 trillion in Q4 2023. The Debt Management Office (DMO) reported that Nigeria’s public debt stock reached N144.67 trillion as of December 31, 2024. Thus, the country spends over 60 percent of its revenue on debt servicing, leaving little room for capital investment.
However, with Nigeria’s vast infrastructure gap, which is estimated at $100 billion annually for a decade to close, government officials argue that platforms like AIIB will help bridge that gap with concessional financing.
There’s also growing anxiety that the influx of foreign funds into infrastructure sectors dominated by Chinese and other foreign contractors has not translated into domestic capacity building or job creation.
However, the government has been touting the ongoing reforms by the Tinubu administration to address the gaps. Edun, while speaking on the sidelines of Nigeria’s recent attendance at the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington, D.C., said that international institutions had praised Nigeria’s macroeconomic reforms, including subsidy removal and exchange rate unification. He noted that these efforts have helped stabilize the economy despite external shocks, such as the reciprocal tariffs recently imposed by the United States.
Edun also cited a recent upgrade of Nigeria’s credit outlook by Fitch Ratings, from B- to B, as evidence that the country’s reform program is gaining traction.
However, Nigeria’s overwhelming economic downturn has made it difficult to believe the government’s assertions on its economic reforms. Economists note that Nigeria’s path forward should not be determined by access to foreign lending institutions, but by the ability to build a self-sustaining economy rooted in productivity, value addition, and export diversification.
That would mean, besides developing its vast mineral deposits, creating policies that attract local and foreign investors to process raw materials domestically.
“We need to develop our processing industries to create jobs, boost intra-continental trade, and ensure we stop exporting raw materials without value addition,” Iweala added.