The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Thursday said the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease EVD in West Africa did not affect Nigeria’s economy.

The minister, who made this known to Bloomberg TV Africa on Thursday, revealed that following the outbreak of the disease, the federal government had a team monitoring the impact on the economy, which she said at the moment, does not have any huge impact on the economy.

 “There’s been some fall-off in hotel occupancy, in Lagos in particular, some meetings have been postponed, but you still have other business people who are arriving,” Okonjo-Iweala said.

The minister further disclosed that the country’s Excess Crude Account, where a portion of oil revenue is stored to cushion the economy against volatility, stands at $4.11 billion. She also hinted that in January, there was concern that a decline in the account balance to about $2.5 billion then, made the economy vulnerable and is expected to be restored before the end of the year

She also revealed plans to open the Development Bank of Nigeria by March next year, adding that the bank is would be capitalized with $2 billion which may rise to $10 billion with the expectation of sealing the gap in Nigerian business lending.