Nigeria’s $1.5 billion loan request still in the works

The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri has disclosed that Nigeria's $1.5 billion load request is still in the works. He also called for more monetary reforms going forward.

He made the comment Thursday during the presentation of the World Bank Nigeria Development Update (NDU) for December

“Think of it this way, when you have say a 10 or 15 billion dollar hole, 1.5 billion dollars is just a little bit of that, the question is how is the rest of that hole being made up?

“What is the sustainability in 2021 and beyond? And that is why we are thinking about the overall prospects going forward, in terms of the macro adequacy and the flexibility and exchange rate management.”

He said the World Bank recognized the effort Nigeria had made, but the country still needed “sound macro-fiscal footing.”

“That is why our shareholders and our management are still saying we recognise how much Nigeria has done, but for this $1.5 billion to really be a part of the larger effort to put Nigeria on a sound macro-fiscal footing going forward, there needs to be a little bit more.”

He added that the World Bank was working on another $1.5 billion loan different from the budget support loan, which was two separate $750 million credits to support state government’s efforts, slated for approval on December 14, Nairametrics reports.

“So, one is additional financing for the State’s Fiscal Transparency Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme for results.

“The other is the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) Programme, which is meant to support the states towards protecting livelihoods, enhancing food security and supporting local economic activity.

“So those are the two operations that are being considered by our board on Monday,” he said.