The World Bank says there is more financial support for Nigeria this year.
Ndiame Diop, World Bank country director for Nigeria, spoke
to journalists after the launch of the country’s development update report in
Abuja.
On September 24, the Washington-based organisation had
approved three new financing totalling $1.57 billion to support Nigeria.
Diop said while Nigeria is qualified for more technical and
financial support, what matters is the implementation.
“Nigeria is a very
important partner for the World Bank,” Diop said.
“And we’ve been providing technical support but also financing.
Our financing comes with technical support, implementation support and really
making sure that things go according to plan.
“In addition to the concessionality in the financing,
because much of what we provide to Nigeria in financing is concessional, the
other reason many countries are really interested in working with us is that
it’s not just financing. It’s also about implementation and making sure that
you get results from that financing.
“And making sure that
the financing enables something in the country, enables the institution,
enables people so that we can achieve sustainability goals.
“Yes, we will keep giving loans. We do actually have funding
in our pipeline for this fiscal year for several projects financed by the World
Bank.
“These are government projects implemented mostly by the
states, but also in the federal government, which span across human capital,
such as health, primary health care, but also education, rural roads,
irrigation and dam safety.
“All of those projects are being processed right now for
Nigeria for this year.”
Diop said the lender is addressing some of the issues
discussed at the event, “such as support to local SMEs, farmers, women in
locality to help them really cope with the rising cost”.
‘NO INTENTIONS TO
KEEP NIGERIA DOWN’
On his part, Alex Sienaert, lead economist for the World
Bank in Nigeria, says the institution has no intention to keep the country or
its people down.
“I’m in this position of having been the lead economist at
the World Bank here in Nigeria on economic policy issues for two years now, and
I just want to tell you that I’ve not seen any conspiracy within the World Bank
or otherwise to keep Nigeria down,” Sienaert said.
“The World Bank is here to help, I’m here to help. Our whole
team is here to help. We’re here to provide advice and low cost financing in
support of Nigeria getting its own house in order for its own sake.”
The economist also said
President Bola Tinubu’s signature reforms, though painful, could help
Nigeria to overcome its challenges.
“If that chance
crystallises, it will transform Nigeria and Africa,” he said.
“We got where we are now that major policy reforms are
starting to yield positive results, as mentioned, if we take a look at GDP, so
the aggregate output of the economy has actually been pretty resilient.”
Sienert said it is important for Nigeria to stay the course
in its reform direction.
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