The African Development Bank (AfDB) has unveiled a bold new five-year Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for Nigeria, committing $2.95 billion to advance the country’s development priorities between 2025 and 2030. The initiative represents a significant step in addressing long-standing concerns over policy inconsistency and ineffective implementation in Nigeria’s development planning landscape.

Set to deliver an average annual investment of $650 million over the initial four years, the CSP aims to catalyze transformative change across key sectors, including infrastructure, education, healthcare, agriculture, and renewable energy. In addition, the Bank anticipates an estimated $3.21 billion in co-financing from international development partners—underscoring growing global confidence in Nigeria’s economic resilience and governance reform efforts.

The strategy is anchored in national development frameworks such as the National Development Plan (2021–2025), Agenda 2050, and President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda. It seeks to correct Nigeria’s historical trend of underachieving policy goals, with previous national plans reportedly falling short of achieving even 90% of their intended targets, largely due to weak institutional frameworks, regulatory inefficiencies, and governance gaps.

According to AfDB, Nigeria faces a staggering infrastructure financing gap of $2.3 trillion between 2020 and 2043. The CSP seeks to close this gap by leveraging RegTech solutions, encouraging private sector participation, and strengthening compliance frameworks to ensure investment transparency and project sustainability.

Lamin Barrow, AfDB’s Country Manager for Nigeria, emphasized the strategy’s focus on accelerating economic diversification, promoting inclusive growth, and enhancing institutional capacity. “This strategy is the result of extensive engagement with public and private sector stakeholders. It is designed to enhance human capital, strengthen regulatory risk management, and support financial sector resilience,” Barrow stated during the CSP’s launch.

Critical components of the CSP include improving regional trade integration through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), promoting climate-resilient infrastructure, and boosting access to quality education and healthcare. These pillars align with the broader objective of strengthening governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) mechanisms essential for sustainable development.

President Tinubu’s national vision of building a self-reliant, inclusive, and globally competitive economy echoes throughout the AfDB strategy. His Renewed Hope Agenda underscores a Nigeria where prosperity is inclusive, industrial capacity is revitalized, and citizens enjoy access to food, shelter, healthcare, and safety.

While the ambition is clear, the path forward demands strong regulatory oversight, effective compliance monitoring tools, and a renewed culture of regulatory enforcement to avoid the pitfalls of past development efforts.

As Nigeria embarks on this new strategic journey, the successful implementation of the AfDB’s CSP could mark a turning point in how the country navigates regulatory change management, builds institutional trust, and delivers measurable outcomes that uplift communities and catalyze long-term economic growth.