FG Receives $2.1bn Credit From World Bank To Rebuild North East Nigeria

The Federal government has received
a 2.1 billion credit facility from World
Bank which will be used to rebuild
the troubled North East zone in
Nigeria.
This was announced in a statement
released by the Special Adviser to
President Buhari on Media and
Publicity, Femi Adesina, The
statement below.
The World Bank has unfolded a
package which would see it spending
up to $2.1 billion in rebuilding the
badly devastated North-eastern part of
Nigeria, ravaged for the past six years
by the Boko Haram insurgency.
At a meeting in Washington today
with representatives of the World
Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, and the World Health
Organization (WHO), President Buhari
said apart from rebuilding the region
in terms of infrastructure, priority
must also be given to the
resettlement of internally displaced
persons (IDPs), who now number over
one million.
He urged the World Bank to send a
team, which would work in concert
with a team from the Federal
Government, so that a proper
assessment of needs could be done.
The World Bank will spend the 2.1
billion dollars through its IDA
(International Development Agency),
which gives low interest rates loans to
government. The first 10 years will be
interest free, while an additional 30
years will be at lower than capital
market rate.
The World Bank is eager to move in
quickly, give out the loans, and give
succour to the people of North-east,
long at the mercy of an insurgency
that has claimed over 20,000 souls.
WHO is also to invest 300 million
dollars on immunization against
malaria in Nigeria, while the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation will
collaborate with Dangote Foundation
to ensure that the country maintains
its zero polio case record of the past
one year. If the effort is sustained for
another two years, Nigeria will be
declared fully free of polio.

FEMI ADESINA
SPECIAL ADVISER, MEDIA AND
PUBLICITY
JULY 21, 2015