IFC moves to unlock private capital for Nigeria’s risky sectors

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) aims to attract private capital to Nigeria's risky sectors, such as agriculture, infrastructure, and small businesses. Olivier Buyoya, Division Director for Nigeria and Central Africa at the IFC, announced this during a press conference in Lagos before the 2026 Africa Financial Summit in Luanda, Angola.

The IFC and World Bank Group have launched a five-year Country Partnership Framework aimed at mobilizing capital that is currently underutilized in strategic sectors due to perceived risks. Agricultural financing is identified as a sector needing urgent attention, as Nigerian commercial banks only allocate less than 5% of their lending to this area.

Buyoya explained that increasing investment in agriculture is crucial for food security, job creation, and expanding domestic production in African economies. To encourage financial institutions and capital market players to lend to traditionally high-risk sectors, IFC is developing innovative financing platforms and risk mitigation solutions.

Principal Investment Officer Dafe Oraka also highlighted the corporation's increasing use of local currency financing to address currency volatility in African markets, particularly in Nigeria. An example of this new approach is the partnership between IFC and Access Bank, which signed a local currency borrowing framework agreement in May.

This arrangement will facilitate long-term local currency financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and other businesses across the continent. The 2026 Africa Financial Summit, organized by the IFC and Jeune Afrique Media Group, aims to bring together key stakeholders in Africa's financial services industry to develop coordination and tangible outcomes.

With over 1,250 senior financial industry leaders expected to attend, the summit will focus on strengthening Africa's financial sector and mobilizing capital for economic development. Recently, Nigeria's specialized infrastructure credit guarantee institution, InfraCredit, secured a US$50 million subordinated unsecured 10-year debt facility from the IFC.

This facility will bolster InfraCredit's capital structure and enable it to support a growing pipeline of infrastructure projects and mobilize long-term local currency financing in various sectors, including renewable energy, climate-smart agriculture, digital infrastructure, healthcare, transportation, and other productive areas of the Nigerian economy.