The World Bank has pledged to increase its support for development programs in Nigeria.
World Bank Country Director, Shubham Chaudhuri disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday when he led his team on a courtesy visit to the minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu.
Chaudhuri said his focus was to work with the government at the Federal and State levels in transforming Nigeria, catalyzing private investment and job creation, as well as investing in children and creating opportunities for Nigeria’s youth and women.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Chaudhuri said, “For Nigeria, we have been supporting a wide range of programmes, ranging from school projects, economic empowerment and energy for rural areas.
“We have a wide range of support; specifically, we discussed with the minister beyond financing, what we could do with ideas and experiences from other countries.
“In its critical role of budget and economic planning, budget function, we discussed with the minister how to ensure that public funds are spent as effectively and efficiently for the common good of Nigerian people.
“We are not just financing; we hope we can provide ideas and some experience from other countries.
“Specifically, we spoke about Nigeria’s Cash Program, ongoing programs implemented by the States, which the ministry is coordinating, not just for the federal government but for sub-nationals”.
The minister explained that the engagement between the ministry and the World Bank is mainly in terms of blended development assistance projects with components of loans and grants from donors, especially the European Union.
“They assured us of more support and appreciated the bold initiatives and measures that have been taken by Bola Tinubu’s administration to reposition the Nigerian economy,” he said.
It could be recalled that the President of the World Bank visited President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently and there was a request for more support.
