The New Development Bank (NDB), also known as the BRICS Development Bank, shiftes away from dollar as they announced plans to start lending in South African and Brazilian currencies.

This move is in order to defy reliance on the US dollar. The development bank was established in 2015 by the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia,  South Africa, India and China.

The bank’s president, Dilma Rousseff, who made this known in a recent interview with the Financial Times said Shanghai-based lender was considering applications for membership from about 15 countries and was likely to approve the admission of four or five.

Rousseff however, declined to name the countries. According to her, “We expect to lend between $8bn-$10bn this year,” Rousseff told the newspaper.

“Our aim is to reach about 30 per cent of everything we lend. in local currency.”

The president noted that NDB would issue debt in rand for lending in South Africa and do “the same thing in Brazil with the real. We’re going to try to either do a currency swap or issue debt. And also in rupees.”

Rousseff revealed that lending in local currency would allow borrowers in member countries to avoid exchange rate risk and variations in US interest rates.

“Local currencies are not alternatives to the dollar. They’re alternatives to a system. So far the system has been unipolar . . . it’s going to be substituted by a more multipolar system.”

The president stated that the bank has tried to distinguish itself from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by not setting lists of political conditions on loans.

“We repudiate any kind of conditionality. Often a loan is given upon the condition that certain policies are carried out. We don’t do that. We respect the policies of each country,” she said.

Nigeria’s vice-president, Kashim Shettima is currently representing President Bola Tinubu at the 15th BRICS summit in South Africa.

Nigeria is not a member of the BRICS bloc.