https://allafrica.com/stories/202012150555.html
The World Bank has approved Nigeria’s request for a $1.5 billion loan.The loan will focus on four areas of engagement namely Investing in human capital, promoting jobs and economic transformation and diversification, enhancing resilience, and strengthening the foundations of the public sector. The Bretton Wood institution said the facility is a five-year country partnership framework that will last from 2021 to 2024. The bank has also approved the 1.5 billion dollar loan for two projects in Nigeria, Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus – Program for Results and The State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability Program for Results Additional Financing. The money will be split evenly between the two projects, each getting 750 million through the International development association. The bank said the facility was prepared jointly with the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. “This country partnership framework will guide our engagement for the next five years in supporting the government of Nigeria’s strategic priorities by taking a phased and adaptive approach,” Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank country director for Nigeria said. The world bank is usually very good about being generous with countries in need and with the CoronaVirus pandemic going on, more countries are more in need than ever. Chaudhuri said that the loan request was taking so long because, irrespective of the bold actions taken by the government in the form of reforms to cushion the effects of the pandemic, the bank still had its reservations. This loan has been in the works for a long time and was finally approved which was a huge relief for Nigeria’s economy. Typically Nigeria asks the WEMA bank for loans and has done a lot of work with them in the past, but they went to The World bank this time because of how large the loan was. This is also going to benefit the people of Nigeria because it will allow relief for those suffering from effects of the pandemic.