Crash In Oil Price, Covid-19, Push World Bank’s Intervention In Nigeria Up By $4.4bn

Between June and December last year, the World Bank approved the sum of $4.37bn for various developmental projects in Nigeria.

Details of the approval for the projects were obtained by THE WHISTLER on Thursday in Abuja.

The projects cut across various sectors of the economy such as power, education, and health particularly in the area of tackling the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

It was learnt that out of the $4.37bn approval secured by the Nigeria government for these projects, the World Bank has so far released the sum of $2.93bn.

A breakdown of the $4.37bn project portfolio showed that the sum of $750m was approved and released on June 23, 2020 by the Board of the World Bank to the Federal Government for the Power Sector Recovery Operation.

The objective of the Power Sector Recovery Operation for Nigeria is to improve the reliability of electricity supply, achieve financial and fiscal sustainability, and enhance accountability.

The program, it was learnt, is expected focus on three results areas. The areas include the improvement in reliability of electricity supply through the implementation of a set of measures to ensure that at least 4,500 megawatt hour of electricity is supplied to the distribution grid from 2022.

This is the minimum level of supply necessary for grid stability and the reduction of system outages. The experience of the Nigerian power sector indicates that this level of supply ensures more reliable service delivery and significantly improves customers’ payments of electricity bills.

Findings also revealed that the intervention of the World Bank would also help to achieve financial and fiscal sustainability of sector companies as this is critical to enforcing their contractual and regulatory obligations and improving service delivery.

It is also the basis for strengthening the balance sheets of sector companies, especially Discos, to enhance their ability to attract private financing.

Further breakdown of the $4.37bn showed that the sum of $500m was approved and released on July 28 last year to improve opportunities among girls in secondary school in targeted areas in participating states.

Similarly, in a bid to support Nigeria’s Covid-19 preparedness and response project by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, the Bank also approved the sum of $114.28m on August 6 last year.

Out of this amount, about $100m has been disbursed by the World Bank to the Federal Government for implementation of the project.

Also, the bank gave approval to the Federal Government’s request of $293m to improve the teaching and learning processes in basic education and expand access to quality digital skills and entrepreneurship development programs for youth in Edo State.

Out of the $293m, about $75m has been disbursed for the implementation of the project.

In the same vein, about $750m was approved and released to the Federal Government on December 14 for the Covid-19 action recovery and economic stimulus programme.

In the area of fiscal transparency, about $1.96bn was approved by the World Bank for Nigeria’s States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programme-for-Results project.

From the $1.96bn, statistics from the World Bank showed that the sum of $750m has been released.

The SFTAS Programme was established by the federal government with the concessional World Bank loan to support states to enhance their financial capacity.

Under the programme, $700m was for the provision of performance-based grants to States while the balance of $50m was for technical assistance.