The Federal Government of Nigeria has concluded an arrangement to borrow $1.5 Billion from the World Bank and $80 Million from the African Development Bank.
The Minister of Finance and coordinating Minister of the economy,
Olawale Edun announced this today, October 16 at a news briefing shortly after the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the presidential villa in Abuja.
He said: “We also approved today, the application for financing from the World Bank. And in particular, the International Development Association which is really the virtually free or zero interest lending arm or financing arm of the World Bank.
“The total is $1.5 billion. And the background is just as you heard from the Minister of planning and budget. The world today is one of high interest rates, as the developed world looks to fight inflation. They do it by restricting money, keeping interest rates high so that you can get inflation down.
“What that means is that interest rates for everybody else, become not just high but very painful, if not on affordable within that context.”
The minister said that
Nigeria has been able to make the kind of macro economic moves and take the tough decisions to restore balance in the economy in the government’s finances that has warranted support and gender and has elicited even support from the multilateral development bank.
He said that it is on the basis of that, that “the world bank is willing to consider and to process on our behalf, $1.5 billion of concessional financing, relatively cheap financing and financing that will be dispersed relatively quickly.
“And that was what was presented to the Federal Executive Council and the members approved that we go ahead with that financing even that it is affordable.
“Secondly, an $80 million financing from the African Development Bank was also approved by the Federal Executive Council. This financing is for a project in Ekiti called the Ekiti knowledge zone Project EKZ.
“An EKZ that is basically to support young people and their quest to take on technology to use it to be employed to be trained and to benefit from being part of the knowledge economy, being part of the technological wave that is present very much in Nigeria, which is becoming a bigger and bigger share of the economy.
“So it’s $80 million to help the young people in the sector of Knowledge Economy technology and communications generally.”
