What Akinwunmi Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has pledged his bank to helping Nigeria to establish a youth-focused entrepreneurship investment bank is a thing to cheer.

But even more exciting is the AfDB pledge to further stick to supporting Nigeria in other critical sectors: agricultural processing, re-industrialisation for export and the very basis of any modern economy: electricity.

“We discussed the special agro-industrial processing zone for which we already have about US$ 520 million for Nigeria,” he declared after meeting President Bola Tinubu in France, at the side bars of the just concluded New Global Financial Pact Summit, at France’s Palais Brongniart, “and how we are going to make sure that the project gets accelerated to give quick wins to the president.”

That should be in terms of quick and ready jobs from cottage industries, which should drive the hub of the agro-industrial zones which, during electioneering, the president promised for different geo-political zones of the country.

Adesina also spoke on electricity: “The president wants to make sure there is an improvement in the access to electricity in Nigeria, and therefore, he talked to us about how we can support him and we gave him the assurance that we will support significantly, in the power sector in Nigeria.”

That is equally good news, so long as it is in synergy with the continuing efforts to boost power, by the past government: particularly the government-to-government Germany-Nigeria Siemens transmission upgrade; and that efforts are streamlined and not duplicated. Electricity is so crucial it requires a multi-layered attention.

The AfDB president also spoke on the imperative for export-focused manufacturing to enhance Nigeria’s chances of earning forex beyond oil and gas.

“I discussed with the president also with regard to the industrial sector in Nigeria,” he volunteered, “and also having an export-oriented industrial manufacturing, which is very important for growing forex in Nigeria.”

It is in the context of all of these that the AfDB pledge of helping to facilitate an entrepreneurial bank, which basically targets the youth — and, in any case, any fresh investment ideas — makes eminent sense.

The prime drivers and the ultimate beneficiaries of any effective economic policy are the youths. Sixty per cent of Nigeria’s thumping population — that is three out of every five — is under the age of 25. That makes it structurally the youngest in Africa, and potentially the most vibrant, if put to active positive use, with the right education and skills set.

Nigeria’s demographics could be a pride as it could be a blight. Still, as many of these youths that are put to work will make a huge dent on the present unemployment, under-employment and outright poverty profile.

That is why the idea of an entrepreneurial bank, feeding bankable ideas with the ready credit to birth more jobs, looks alluring — especially in the crucial small and medium scale investment sub-sectors, where most of these new ventures would play.

But again, it must be a holistic solution. Which is why it is good that AfDB is talking with a basket of investment policies in mind: power, industry and agricultural processing.

Regular, affordable and reliable power is at the backbone of it all. Without power, it is doubtful if the entrepreneurial investment bank can foster enough new ventures, viable enough to promptly pay back their loans, thus sustaining the cycle of investments to benefit latter beneficiaries.

Outside the financial sector, however, back-up communication is crucial. There is an alarming level of illiteracy pertaining to the place of credit and loans in a capitalist economy. The standard practice here appears raising “rising debt” as nothing but severe scare crow, thus misleading the populace under the guise of public interest.

If this policy thrust must succeed, then it is imperative that the new government ramp up its media enlightenment policy. It’s simply illiterate to scream over the “debt burden” without linking such investments to the accruing assets the debts were acquired for; and the particular challenges the loans were taken to fix.

But even as this radical re-education continues, the government must rebuild trust in the people by ensuring judicious use of the loans. There are Nigerians who raise genuine fears about loans because of the country’s experience. For instance, then President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke of loans taken for specific purposes that not a dime went into the purported projects. This must not be allowed to happen.

Furthermore, the government must not slacken in its infrastructural pursuits: rail, road, air and waterways; and also enhanced back-bones for telecoms and digital services.

That integrated economic landscape is imperative, for the planned entrepreneurial bank to raise the quality of the economy and the overall quality of Nigerian living.

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