Nigerian govt, World Bank launch $750m COVID-19 support programme

In order to cushion the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Nigerians, the Federal Government in collaboration with the World Bank has launched the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus, to be boosted with a $750m facility by the latter.

This was disclosed on Thursday by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo via a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, in a statement titled, ‘World bank $750m support will complement FG’s social investment, job creation, poverty reduction programmes–Osinbajo’.

According to the Vice-President, the programme which spans various sectors of the economy was initiated to provide essential emergency relief to smallholder farmers and MSMEs, especially those that were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Osinbajo further noted that this was part of the FG’s mandate towards “taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and in response to the severe socio-economic fallouts of the pandemic, especially those programmes and plans contained in the Economic Sustainability Plan” while enumerating the positive ripple effects of the programme on the economy.

The statement reads, “NG-Cares is a multi-sectoral programme designed to support vulnerable and poor Nigerians to provide essential emergency relief to smallholder farmers and MSMEs, especially those that were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Programme will build on the varied and extensive Federal Government interventions developed as part of the president’s plan for taking 100 million Nigerians out of poverty and in response to the severe socio-economic fallouts of the pandemic, especially those programmes and plans contained in the Economic Sustainability Plan.

“The essential addition to the Federal Government’s Programme is that the NG-Cares programme will leverage on existing programmes in the states, especially job creation programmes, wealth creation, poverty reduction programmes at the community level such as state cash transfer units, state Fadama or agriculture development agencies, state job creation units and MSME units. All of the support by Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme.”

Read also: Nigerian govt plans to end COVID-19 pandemic in 2022

The Vice-President also explained that the $750m loan from the World Bank would be spread over two years, explaining that “the intervention allocation to each state was $20m and $15m to the FCT; there was also $15m for the Federal Cares Support Unit.”

“That plan serves as a bridge to ensure successful programme implementation. The Federal Government will provide quality assurance, monitoring, capacity building and technical assistance to states and the FCT on project activities and results.

“Consequently, the Federal Government has inaugurated the Federal Cares Steering Committee, the Federal Cares Technical Committee and the Federal Cares Support Unit to provide overall policy direction, technical support to all the states and the FCT and to advise the president appropriately,” Osinbajo noted.

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