World Bank approves over N700 billion to tackle “extreme poverty” in Nigeria

The World Bank has approved six projects worth about $2.2 billion to support Nigerian human capital and economic development in 2020.

“Nigeria is central to the World Bank Group’s mission of tackling extreme poverty,” said David Malpass, World Bank Group President, in a statement.

“The World Bank is carefully targeting its support on high impact projects as the country works to tackle corruption and lift 100 million of its people out of poverty,” he added.

According to the lending bank, the funds will be spent on immunization, the expansion of the digital economy, job creation, and public and private sector governance.

“These projects focus squarely on delivering better services for Nigerians: ensuring that children are immunized and sleep under mosquito nets, building better roads especially in rural areas, and providing Nigeria’s poorest citizens with a unique identification that will make social safety nets and services more effective,” Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, said.

World Bank listed Immunization Plus & Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Services, Ogun State Economic Transformation Project and Nigeria Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project as parts of the six approved program of support in 2020 fiscal year.

Others are Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills Project, Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement Project and Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project.

According to World Bank, the Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills Project “will strengthen the skills of 50,000 Nigerian students and enhance the capacity of technical teachers to better equip them for jobs in the formal and informal sectors.”

“The project aims to increase the female enrollment rate from 13% to 23% in technical colleges and provide recognized skills and certification to 3,000 youth after they complete an informal apprenticeship.”