KEY POINTS
- Edun targets 7 percent annual GDP growth to cut poverty.
- Nigeria needs $14 billion yearly to bridge infrastructure gap.
- IsDB has invested over $2.4 billion in Nigeria.
Olawale Edun arrived at the Islamic Development Bank Group Day in Lagos on Monday with a number he wanted Nigeria to internalize: 7 percent. That is the annual Nigeria GDP growth rate the finance minister says the country must sustain to make a meaningful dent in poverty.
Speaking at the event, Edun, who also serves as coordinating minister of the economy, said the administration has moved past the turbulence that followed the economic reset it launched in May 2023. Stabilization is done, he said. The moment now demands visible impact.
“We are targeting 7 percent annual GDP growth as we need that to bring as many Nigerians as possible out of poverty,” Edun said.
The infrastructure bill is $14 billion a year
Reaching that target carries a steep price tag. Nigeria needs roughly $14 billion annually to close its infrastructure gap across energy, transport and digital connectivity. Public financing covers only about 10 percent of total investment needs, Edun said, making private capital not a preference but a structural necessity.
The government’s partnership with the Islamic Development Bank anchors that strategy. Edun said the relationship rests on two pillars: sustainable infrastructure and human capital development. On the human side, he highlighted the Ward Based Development Programme, which funnels financing and skills support to small businesses across the country’s 8,809 wards. He also confirmed that the National Single Window Project went live last Thursday to reduce trade bottlenecks.
Edun commended the IsDB’s backing of the Lagos-Calabar and Lagos-Sokoto highway projects, saying both would help unlock the country’s agriculture, tourism and blue economy potential.
IsDB deepens its Nigeria footprint
Anasse Aissami, director general of country programmes at the IsDB, said the bank has disbursed over $182 billion globally since its founding in 1974, with Nigeria receiving approximately $2.4 billion of that total. The bank now operates in 21 of Nigeria’s 36 states.
Aissami said the Country Engagement Framework 2026-2028 marks a shift toward integrated, national-scale solutions rather than isolated interventions. The bank has built more than 30 model boarding schools, six science secondary schools and a 300-bed specialist hospital in Nigeria.
Sustaining Nigeria GDP growth at the level Edun described, he suggested, depends on exactly that kind of combined investment in both infrastructure and people.
