Vice President Mohammad Namadi Sambo, yesterday, expressed federal government's desire for a quick and urgent intervention by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to arrest the scourge of Poliomyelitis in Nigeria.

Speaking when the President of the Bank, Dr. Ahmed Mohammed Ali paid him a courtesy call in the Royal Palace Hotel, Makkah, Sambo, who expressed the good wishes of President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian people towards the bank, called on it to make cheap funds available to both government and private concerns to address infrastructural deficit and boost the Nigerian economy.

Sambo said that the country needed investment in hydropower generation, agricultural development, efficient transportation to improve haulage of persons, goods and services.

Other issues discussed during the meeting included availing the Nigerian farmer the opportunity to realise his full potentials by financing their requirements for implements and inputs; bilingual education fund of $100 million open for access by interested concerns; freight and air services to convey perishables from Nigeria to Saudi, forming of a Joint Commission and a business mission to visit the Bank.

Earlier, Dr. Ahmed had explained to the Vice President that the Bank has developed a new mode of financing polio eradication which would be implemented in Pakistan and subsequently Nigeria and Afghanistan.

He also promised to create a leasing company with partners in Nigeria to help the Nigerian farmer.

Present at the meeting were the Governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada, Minister of State II Foreign Affairs, Dr. Nurudeen Mohammed and Nigeria's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Abubakar Shehu Bunu.