We have spent $11 billion in Nigeria — World Bank

The World Bank has declared that it has so far spent around $11 billion over the years on projects across Nigeria.

Country Director of the World Bank in Nigeria, Mr Rachid Benmessaoudade, made this disclosure in Abuja on Thursday at the maiden edition of the Nigeria Portfolio Performance Award.

He said the projects which this huge sum of money was spent on over the years were targeted at alleviating poverty and improving the lives of Nigerians.

He described the World Bank’s financial commitment in Nigeria as being among the largest in the entire African continent with over 30 operational projects.

The projects, he said, are spread across health, education, agriculture, social protection, energy, infrastructure, governance, among others, in all 36 states of Nigeria, and the FCT.

READ ALSO: EFCC gives condition to help AMCON recover debts

He said that 60 percent of the bank’s programmes were implemented at the state level and another 40 percent at the federal level.

Benmessaoudade also revealed that the bank was working on a new country partnership framework “that would outline the new reform challenges that the government faces and how it could support it in implementing solutions to the challenges.”

According to him, “the country partnership strategy is always anchored on the economic reform plan of the government and in this case we have used the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which is the medium-term programme of the government on which we are anchoring our country partnership framework.”

He said the bank feels that “the world bank can play a catalytic role in creating a conducive environment for private sector to finance infrastructure so that we can create the fiscal space for the government to put more money in human capital and in social spending.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now