World Bank to Spend $8 Billion on Nigeria Over Four Years

Monday, April 28, 2014

The World Bank said it will provide Nigeria with projects worth $8 billion targeting job creation, social services and governance as part of its new country partnership strategy with Africa’s largest economy.

Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation with about 170 million people, will get $2 billion annually, disbursed through the International Development Association and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Washington-based lender said today in an e-mailed statement.

“The bulk of the financing program will focus on increasing installed power generation and transmission capacity and improving the efficiency and governance of electricity delivery,” said Indira Konjhodzic, the World Bank’s team leader for new strategy. The fund will also boost farming and help increase access to finance for women, she said.

Through the partnership the World Bank seeks to reduce extreme poverty in Nigeria, where at least 7 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion poor people live. Only two countries, India and China, are home to a greater share of poor people, it said. The most recent poverty survey by the Nigerian statistics office shows that 61 percent of citizens were living on less than a dollar a day in 2010, up from 52 percent in 2004.

Source: Bloomberg (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Uncategorized
Tags
governance, impact investing, poverty alleviation