ABUJA - The African Development Bank (AfDB) said on Tuesday Nigeria could draw $1 billion loan from the bank annually for development projects.

Resident representative for the bank Ousmane Dore disclosed this in Abuja, adding the AfDB agreed that the West African country could have access to both of its lending windows, because of the size of Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa.

One of the lending windows include the non-concessional loan and the African Development Fund (ADF), where member countries could access loans at concessional rates.

Another window is the Nigerian Trust Fund, established by Nigeria and from which member countries could access loans for capacity building and feasibility studies.

Dore said the AfDB was set up to promote socio-economic development on the continent, especially on the challenges of infrastructure which the bank had been clearly pushing through these different instruments.

According to him, the bank had taken on socio-economic challenges amounting to about 1.5 billion dollars in various sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Dore told reporters that the fund was being managed by the Nigerian government while the bank implemented projects under its scope.

He said the fund had been making impact in Africa as a whole, adding that it recently signed an agreement with the government of Sierra Leone for scholarships funds for the education sector.

The AfDB is the development and financial institution set up in 1964 by African member countries to promote socio-economic development on the continent.