News Investigators/ The Nigerian Government has secured a total of $2.25 billion loan from the World Bank to bolster economic stability and support vulnerable populations
The amount provides immediate financial and technical support to Nigeria’s urgent efforts to stabilize the economy and scale up support to the poor and most economically at risk.
The World Bank, in a statement on Thursday, said the $2.25 billion package includes $1.5 billion for the Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilization to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing Program and $750 million for the Nigeria Accelerating Resource Mobilization Reforms Program-for-Results.
The funding also seeks to boost Nigeria’s non-oil revenue generation and protect oil revenues, thereby supporting fiscal sustainability and improving the delivery of public services.
The statement from the bank read, “The World Bank has today approved two operations: $1.5 billion for the Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing Program and $750 million for the Nigeria Accelerating Resource Mobilisation Reforms Programme-for-Results.
“This combined $2.25 billion package provides immediate financial and technical support to Nigeria’s urgent efforts to stabilize the economy and scale up support to the poor and most economically at risk. It further supports Nigeria’s ambitious, multi-year effort to raise non-oil revenues and safeguard oil revenues to promote fiscal sustainability and provide sufficient resources to deliver quality public services.”
At the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank last month, Minister of Finance Wale Edun announced that Nigeria had qualified for a $2.25 billion loan from the World Bank at a one percent interest rate, describing it as “virtually a grant.”
The package, approved by the World Bank’s Board of Directors, includes a 40-year term with a 10-year moratorium and a nominal one percent interest rate.
He stated, “We have qualified for the processing just this week to the Board of Directors of the World Bank of a total package of $2.25bn of what you can call ‘the closest you can get to a free lunch’- virtually a grant. It’s for about a 10- 20 year moratorium and about one percent interest.”