Northern Governors Begin Talks With Multi-Billion Dollar Islamic Development Bank In Saudi Arabia

Worried by turbulent developmental challenges facing the Northern part of Nigeria, selected Governors from the northeast, northwest and north central, representing the 19 Governors of the region, will on Sunday begin a three day meeting with top executives of Islamic Development Bank (IDB), at the bank’s headquarters in Jedda, Saudi Arabia.
Sunday is a working day in the Islamic country with Fridays and Saturdays being work free days.
Kashim Shettima, Borno State Governor and Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum (NSGF) is leading the delegation.


Shettima in company of Governors Tanko Almakura of Nassarawa, Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State and Mohammed Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa State, officials of the New Nigerian Development Company owned by the 19 northern States, selected Commissioners of Agriculture, Education, Post Insurgency Reconstructions, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, Home Affairs, Economic planning, Economic Adviser to late President Yar’Adua, Dr Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi, technical resource consultants and facilitators were received by a delegation of the IDB on Saturday in Jedda.
Shettima’s media aide, Malam Isa Gusau who is part of the delegation, in a statement issued Saturday, explained that the decision to seek critical development partnership with the IDB, was part of resolutions reached by the 19 Governors, irrespective of religious and political divides, at one of their meetings held September, 2015, in Kaduna.

The parley deliberated on ways of tackling challenges of Agriculture, poverty, education, maternal mortality and other problems most prevalent in the north than any part of Nigeria.
At the opening of discussions on Sunday, the Governors are expected to meet with the President, Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali and Vice President, Operations of the IDB Group at the bank’s headquarters and they are scheduled to meet on Nigeria-IDB Cooperation with a wide range of possible areas of Collaboration to be discussed.

In subsequent days, the Governors will hold different meetings with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation, ITFC and the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment & Export Credit (ICIEC), Islamic Research and Training Institute (IRTI), Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) all of which bodies under the IDB, with a view to reaching a developmental partnership on different sectors in the northern Nigeria.

Established about 41 years ago, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) is an international financial institution involved in equity capital, finances productive projects for the economic and social development of 56 countries who are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and supports Muslim communities including those in none-member countries, through special intervention funds set aside by the bank for international cooperation.
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