Nigeria's Intercontinental bank offered AfDB credit

LAGOS (Reuters) - The African Development Bank said on Wednesday it was offering a $100 million credit line to Nigeria's Intercontinental Bank to help it fund small and medium-sized businesses in Africa's most populous nation.

The AfDB said the credit line would help to create jobs in construction, manufacturing, transport, tourism, and other industries, and that it would be used to finance medium- to long-term projects across the country.

"Through its role in the financial intermediation process, Intercontinental, with the help of this line of credit, will channel funding to deserving projects, thereby playing a critical role in accelerating growth and creating employment," the AfDB said in a statement.

It said priority would be given to high-growth projects with strong export earnings potential.

Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter, but its oil revenue has sharply declined with global oil prices. A 20 percent decline in the naira currency against the U.S. dollar in the past two months has further weakened the country's economic outlook.

World Bank and regional development banks have increased lending to developing countries to help them weather the global financial crisis, which has curbed banks' ability to lend.

Nigeria's commercial banks have seen foreign credit lines dry up as the world lost its appetite for risk. But long-term investors say that Nigeria, with its 140 million people, still has rich potential in sectors ranging from telecoms and infrastructure to financial services.