FG Gets $750m World Bank Loan for COVID-19 Recovery

By Adedapo Adesanya

The federal government has confirmed the receipt of a $750 million World Bank loan as an intervention towards helping Nigerians quickly recover from the effect of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

This was disclosed by the Minister of State for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mr Clem Agba, at the appraisal meeting of the proposed Nigeria Cares (N-CARES) programme organised by the Community and Social Development Project (CSDP), an initiative of the federal government.

He urged states to leverage on both the N560 billion and N462 billion available for MSMEs and Agriculture sectors to mitigate the effect of coronavirus on their people.

Mr Agba also urged representatives of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) at the meeting to pass the information to the relevant MDAs and groups for the benefit of their states.

“It is on the recommendation of the Economic Sustainability Plan that we are here today. The World Bank Loan of $750 million is to support interventions geared towards helping Nigerians recover quickly from the effect of COVID-19.

“This loan is in line with the Federal Government Plan of action for recovery. As we must have heard, the loan of $20 million dollars per state and $15 million for Federal Capital Territory is based on performance for result.

“It is therefore expected that at the end of the two years of this emergency intervention, our people in the state will not ask us questions on how we spend the loan because we shall have visible results to show,” he said.

The National Coordinator of CSDP, Mr Abdulkarim Obaje, said that the programme was aimed at mitigating the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on citizens, infrastructure and the economy.

Mr Obaje said that the programme was designed to cover all the 36 States and FCT, assuring that CSDP was technically prepared to provide all that was needed to drive the programme.

He said that the federal government has shown high commitment towards lifting 100 million Nigerians out of poverty over the next 10 years.