Access to World Bank’s $750m loan, grant coming, says Fed Govt

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The World Bank’s $750 million loans and  grants will soon be accessed by the 36 governments and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, broke the news at the seventh Community of Practice (CoP), which comprise state Commissioners of Planning and Budget, in Abuja at the weekend.

She said: “We are in the process of going to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to get the approval; the World Bank on its own has already approved this and others.”

Mrs. Ahmed expressed optimism that states would continue with their fiscal responsibility, which would serve as a platform to access the loan and grant.

“So, we hope that you will continue to implement your fiscal responsibility so that you will qualify for this facility as well as the grant,” she said.

The Community of Practice meetings enhance Commissioners of Planning and Budget’s capabilities to perform their functions, and serve as platforms for facilitating peer learning and information exchange, strengthening co-ordination, collaboration and networking.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media and Communications, Paul Ella Abechi, quoted the minister as saying during the meeting: “We had the benefit of hosting the World Bank and several other communities, including the Governors’ Forum”.

She  continued: “During  this exercise, the Ministry of Finance had to, on instruction from the President, provide bailouts to the states because at one point they were not able to pay salaries.

“Part of the conditions that was given for those bailouts is a fiscal responsibility plan, which needed to be implemented for the states to continue to be qualified to access the funds that the Federal Government was giving.

“This FRP was quite successful because as a result of that we saw improvements in the public financial management in a lot of states, some of which are evident in the increase in their IGR and also the increase in the frequency of the preparation of financial statement in the availability of budget that used to never been found anywhere.

“This year, it was so good that the World Bank said this group has done well and therefore, we are going to give $750million in the form of concession loans and grant which will be available soon for the states to access.

“Those principles agreed by NEC are still as relevant today as they were in 2016. So I want to urge the CoP to ensure that the monitoring aspect of this is still continuing in one way or the other” Mrs. Ahmed told the states.


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