The World Bank has declared as “effective“ President Muhammadu Buhari regime’s $750-million COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) Programme.
Aso Vakporaye, the Federal CARES Technical Committee chairman, announced this in a statement on Tuesday.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to lift 100 million people out of poverty in 10 years. The NG-CARES Programme is one of the strategic actions being taken to achieve this presidential mandate,” said the World Bank representative. “Each of the 36 states of the federation will get a nominal allocation of $20 million, while the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will get $15 million under the Programme for Result (PforR) financing instrument of the World Bank.”
The World Bank had in August listed Nigeria among 10 countries with high debt risk exposure. Nigeria ranked number five with $11.7 billion debt stock according to a financial statement the World Bank released on behalf of the International Development Association (IDA).
Mr Vakporaye explained that the World Bank’s recommendation was contained in a letter which the Country Director of World Bank Office in Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, addressed to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
He explained that the global financial institution stated that Mr Buhari’s regime had met all the conditions for eligibility for the credit line.
Mr Vakporaye recalled that the regime sought the assistance of the World Bank in funding its ‘Post-COVID-19 Economic Sustainability Plan’.
The bank described the fund as an emergency intervention programme, built on three result areas with 11 disbursement linked indicators (DLIs).
