The federal government of Nigeria has said that it plans to use a $617 million fund it received from the Africa Development Bank (AFDB), the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) to launch the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-DICE) programme in November.

Kashim Shettima, Nigeria’s vice president, told state correspondents on Friday that an i-DICE steering committee would come up with a plan on how to use the $617 million fund.

“The peculiarity of the challenges we face in the country demands that we have to create jobs for our teeming youths to address the crises associated with youth unemployment. I want to appeal to all of us here to unite and see that this programme takes off latest by the end of November this year,” Shettima stated.

“I am interested in getting a weekly update on what is being done to kick-start this programme. We also need to spread out to cover the whole country so that there is inclusivity. If we judiciously utilise these funds, the target impact and anticipated benefits will be immense.”

Kayode Pitan, the managing director of the Bank Of Industry (BOI), said, “The Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (i-DICE) is actually a $617 million programme. The funding has been concluded with African Development Bank (AfDB), the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).”

Pitan also said that the BOI would contribute to the funding. The i-DICE programme is a project four years in the making.

EQToday checked to know about the respective development banks’ interests in such an ambitious Nigerian project.

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AFDB OFFERED $170 MILLION LOAN FOR i-DICE

Akinwunmi Adesina, President of the Africa Development Bank (AFDB) Photo downloaded from X

In December 2021, the AFDB’s board of directors approved a loan that would go to Nigeria’s creative and digital enterprises.

The AFDB mentioned that the money was directly going to fund i-DICE. It also said that the programme was co-financed by the AFD and the IsDB.

“This programme will generate significant economic benefits to Nigeria,” said Lamin Barrow, Director General of the AFDB’s Nigeria Country Department.

“The programme interventions will help respond to the challenges of youth employment in Nigeria, which could intensify without scalable interventions.”

Beth Dunford, AFDB’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development, also expressed the bank’s position on i-DICE’s potential for job creation.

“This programme is among the latest series of our operations meant to bolster the implementation of the bank’s Jobs for Youth in Africa Strategy. Given that tech-enabled enterprises cut across all the economic growth sectors, the programme’s focus on the digital sector will deepen Nigeria’s job creation efforts,” Dunford said.

The AFDB had 57 operations in Nigeria across 30 public and 27 private sector operations valued at about $4.61 billion at the time of this fund’s approval.

It said that the i-DICE programme aligned with the bank’s strategic priority areas aimed at industrialising Africa and improving the quality of life within African countries.

The funding is nonetheless a loan Nigeria has to repay over time.

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AFD’s €100 MILLION ($116 MILLION) STAKE

AFD Headquarters in Paris. PHOTO CREDIT: AFD English/X

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) began its activities in Nigeria over 12 years ago. It claims its varied financing solutions have contributed to the development of Nigeria’s competitive economy.

The AFDB noted that the AFD provided $116 million to fund i-DICE.

For its $116 million stake, the AFD is pushing an ‘access to culture for all’ agenda in Nigeria through its Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) initiative in African countries.

“We have started assisting our Education Division with the I-Dice (Investment in Digital Creative Enterprises) programme in Nigeria, for example. It’s co-financed by African Development Bank and aims to build the skills of Nigerian youth, in particular by creating training programmes in audiovisual professions, gaming, animation and other sectors,” Guillaume Langlois d’Estaintot, a CCI officer at AFD, said in May 2022.

Gaëlle Mareuge, the head of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) mission at AFD, reiterated the agency’s interests during an interview in October.

While citing AFD’s CCI footprints in Africa, Mareuge said i-DICE was an example of a broader application of CCI initiatives.

“AFD Group is currently active in virtually all CCI disciplines, from audiovisual and live performance to publishing, digital technology, cultural heritage and museums,” Mareuge explained.

“Today, our aim is obviously to continue supporting CCI projects, but also to mainstream CCI throughout AFD’s portfolio.

“…the idea is no longer to work solely on 100% CCI projects, but to integrate CCI components or activities into broader initiatives carried out by our technical divisions and local agencies in liaison with our beneficiaries.

“Another example: I-Dice, a vocational training course in Nigeria, where we are integrating an ICC component, developing an e-learning platform and supporting creative hubs (including audiovisual, gaming and animation).”

AFD never said the $116 million fund was a loan.

What’s in it for France? Why send hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to fund CCI projects at once?

The AFD website simply states that the Création Africa forum is helping strengthen the partnership between Africa and France by promoting artists, creators, and producers.

In short, providing aid to boost friendlier international relationships.

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IsDB CO-FINANCING WITH $70 MILLION

The Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) is providing $70 million in co-financing for i-DICE. Nigeria is one of IsDB’s 57 member countries.

“The basic condition for membership is that the prospective member country should be a member of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC),” IsDB’s website states.

Nigeria joined IsDB on 15 June, 2005, and has become one of the nine major shareholders at the bank.Membership confers on these 57 countries privileges including funding. Nigeria has received $1.9 billion in funding from IsDB.

IsDB has not released a statement on i-DICE. While information on the bank’s involvement in the programme is available at AFDB, it has not been revealed whether IsDB’s $70 million is a loan or not.

AFDB says Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI) will “provide $45 million as FGN’s Counterpart contribution to be availed through loans for qualifying start-ups”.

The bank explained that this financing is expected to leverage further equity investments from the private sector and institutional investors to the tune of $217 million in order to reach the $617 million goal.
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