EBRD President Renaud-Basso visits Nigeria for high-level talks

European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) President Odile Renaud-Basso will travel to Nigeria this week, marking her first visit to a sub-Saharan country since the Bank shareholders’ historic decision to start investing in the region.

A statement by EBRD emailed to BusinessDay on Monday said that during her visit, President Renaud Basso will meet with senior government officials, including Adebayo Olawale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy and EBRD governor to discuss government economic priorities and private-sector investment. She will also meet representatives from the private sector and development partners.

The visit underscores the EBRD’s growing engagement in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, and the Bank’s commitment to supporting private sector development, sustainable infrastructure and economic resilience across the region.

“Stands out as a vibrant, high potential economy where our private sector focused model can make a real difference. We look forward to working closely with Nigerian partners to foster sustainable growth, deepen financial resilience and support the country’s development ambitions.”

The EBRD President will be joined by Heike Harmgart, managing director for Sub-Saharan Africa, and Hamza Al-Assad, EBRD director of the Bank in Nigeria.

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Nigeria became an EBRD shareholder and a country of operation in 2025, when the Bank signed its first investment agreement in the country, to provide a trade financing facility to Access Bank.

In Nigeria, the Bank aims to invest in sustainable critical infrastructure that underpins private-sector development, to support the modernisation and efficiency of enterprises, and to strengthen the economic governance of institutions.

EBRD launched its first investment in Nigeria and the first in the sub-Saharan financial sector, providing a $ 100 million (€85.0 million) trade finance facility to Access Bank, the country’s leading commercial bank.

The trade finance limit under the EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) aims to support Access Bank’s trade finance operations and help it to diversify its correspondent banking relationships and strengthen trade finance links with other EBRD countries of operation. Under the TFP, the limit and the enhanced trade finance capacity will be used to issue guarantees in favour of foreign commercial banks and provide cash advances to fund trade-related loans to local companies, including pre-export, post-import and local distribution activities. This facility will also enable intra-regional trade.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.