Lagos — Nigeria has received concessionary loans of $ 60 million dollars from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), an official said.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Ms Amma Pepple, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that part of the money was used for food security. Pepple said that the money, which was received in 2006, was used by the federal government for the National Food Security Project in the Ministry of Agriculture.

The permanent secretary, who spoke to NAN on the sideline of the just-concluded 33rd annual meeting of IDB, said the first amount was N400 billion (about 30 million dollars).

She said the government was considering priority areas to commit the second tranche of another N400 billion, noting that it would be in line with President Umaru Yar'Adua's seven-point agenda.

"The loans are all concessionary, which is in line with the federal government's new policy on taking only concessionary facilities," she said.

On Nigeria's membership of the IDB, Pepple said the country now had 2.5 per cent shares in the bank and would require 8.5 per cent to have an executive seat on its board.

"So far we are members of IDB and we have 2.5 per cent, which is quite small.

"I understand that we will need 8.5 per cent shares to have membership of the board and attain executive director position.

"So we are trying to push up the number of shares we have in the bank so that we can benefit more," she said.

Pepple, who represented the Minister of Finance, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, at the meeting, said discussions were centred on rising global cost of food. "As far as I am concerned, Nigeria has no business in the food crisis because we have enough population and land to feed ourselves.