The World Bank has approved a loan of about $2.2 billion to help finance six projects that will boost Nigeria’s human capital and economic development in 2020.
The funds will be disbursed to cater to immunization, the expansion of the digital economy, job creation, and public and private sector governance, the lender said in an emailed statement.
The lender’s country director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri in said, “World Bank is ramping up its support to Nigeria in its efforts to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty
Financiers for the projects include the Nigerian government, the International Development Association, the French Development Agency and the European Investment Bank.
The lender wants the funds deployed to building better roads, strengthening of intensive medical care for children and also ensure there is provision for unique identification for the poorest people to make social safety nets and services more effective.
The new loan by the World Bank takes Nigeria’s domestic and foreign to over USD 80 Billion. The support also comes barely a year after the same lender gave Africa’s largest economy USD 2.4 Billion.
The southwestern part of Nigeria will benefit from the loan as funds will be disbursed to the betterment of the business environment in Ogun State; especially agribusiness. This will be financed with a USD 250 Mn credit from the IDA.
The loan will also be used to promote student entrepreneurship as 50,000 Nigerian students will go through programmes to enhance their skills, while also technical teachers’ capacity will be strengthened to arm these students for informal and formal jobs.
USD 200 million made possible with credit from the IDA has been earmarked for this.
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