The Federal Government has borrowed a total of $4.95bn in loans from the World Bank in the past 12 months, pushing the total public debt to N101tn amidst worries about the increasing costs of servicing external debt.
The nation’s public debt was put at approximately N97tn as of December 2023, according to the Debt Management Office data.
This came as the government still expects fresh loan approval worth $4.4bn from the international lender and the Africa Development Bank over the next one year.
An analysis by our correspondent showed that the bank approved funding for six projects including $750m for power sector financing, $500m for women empowerment, $700m for girl child education, $750m for renewable energy solutions, $750m on resource mobilisation reforms and $1.5bn for economic stabilisation reforms.
Findings by The PUNCH showed that on June 9, 2023, the World Bank board approved a loan of $750m to boost Nigeria’s power sector. The bank said the loan would serve as additional financing for the power sector recovery performance-based operation.
It also announced the approval of a loan of $500m on June 27, 2023to help Nigeria drive women’s empowerment. This was the second loan approved by the bank under the current administration. It provided a scale-up financing for the Nigeria for Women Programme.
In September 2023, the World Bank approved a loan of $700m to bolster educational opportunities and empowerment for adolescent girls in Nigeria. The loan was to support the ongoing ‘Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment project. It aimed to encourage secondary education accessibility for girls residing in specific target states within Nigeria.
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