World Bank pledges increased support to Nigeria

The World Bank has committed to providing more funding for development initiatives in Nigeria.

When Shubham Chaudhuri, the country director for the World Bank, led his team to pay the minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu, a courtesy visit on Tuesday in Abuja, he revealed this.

In addition to investing in children and opening doors for Nigeria’s youth and women, Chaudhuri stated his main goal was to work with the government at the federal and state levels to improve Nigeria.

Following the meeting, Chaudhuri spoke with press and stated, “For Nigeria, we have been supporting a wide range of programming, ranging from school projects, economic development, 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 outlined how the ministry and World Bank work together primarily on integrated development aid programs that include loans and grants from donors, particularly 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.

Recall that lately President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was visited by the President of the World Bank, and more assistance was requested.