Nigeria, others benefitted from $2.69bn guarantees - World Bank

The World Bank has disclosed that Nigeria and 19 other countries benefitted from about $2.69bn guarantees between 2020 and 2021.

The guarantees were issued under the COVID-19 Fast Track Facility.

The other countries are Albania, Argentina, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Chile, Eswatini, Georgia, Ghana, Kosovo, Lesotho, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, North Macedonia, Peru, Serbia, Ukraine and Zambia.

This was contained in one of the newly released FY21financial statements of the bank, precisely the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency’s financial statement.

According to the statement, MIGA launched a $6.5bn Fast-track facility in April 2020in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to support private sector investors and lenders in emerging markets and developing countries.“In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, MIGA launched a $6.5bn Fast-track facility in April 2020.

The facility was geared towards supporting private sector investors and lenders in emerging markets and developing economies, and was structured around the following three pillars,” it stated.

Nigeria and the other countries benefited under the second pillar with guarantees totalling $1.127bn in FY20 and $1.563bn in FY21.

Under this pillar, the guarantees were offered for capital optimisation, which means support for financial institutions in extending lending in host countries by freeing up risk-weighted assets locked up in maintaining their mandatory reserves with central banks.