Nigeria: World Bank, FG Sign $205 Million Credit Facility

from All Africa

Daily Trust (Abuja)

Anas A. Galadima

The World Bank and the federal government yesterday in Abuja, signed two different credit agreements valued $205milion to finance malaria control programme and poverty eradication projects.

Under the Malaria Control Booster Project, Nigeria got $180million from the International Development Association (IDA), a subsidiary of the bank, to control the spread of malaria in Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Rivers states.

Under the Community Based Poverty Reduction Programme, the country got an additional $25million to conclude on-going projects under the scheme.

Speaking before the agreements were signed, Minister of Finance, Nenadi Usman, said "the objectives of the $180million IDA credit facility for the malaria control are to ensure that the target population located within the participating states have improved access to and utilization of well defined set of malaria plus package (MPP) and to strengthen federal and state government's ability to manage and oversee the delivery of malaria plus interventions."

"The Community Based Poverty Reduction Project (CPRP) is an IDA assisted project whose design and implementation use the Community Driven Development approach to ensure ownership and sustainability."

She said the objectives of the project are to improve access of the poor to social and economic infrastructure in Abia, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Kebbi, Kwara, Kogi and Yobe states.

"The initial credit of $60million became effective on September 28, 2001, with a closing date of August 31, 2006. but a number of the projects components were not completed and the project's fund is virtually exhausted.

It therefore becomes necessary to request IDA for additional financing. The additional sum which is $25million, would be applied to the large number of ongoing activities under the project to forestall any incident of abandonment," she said.

The minister observed that the, "the bank's total commitment in Nigeria since the inception of this administration, is about $2.3billion with close to $700million disbursed. The credits for 24 projects are mainly in the social sector i.e education, health and poverty reduction. Other sectors that have benefited from the banks support include infrastructure, agriculture and economic management."