By Munachimso Obienyi
States in Nigeria are poised to play a big role in aiding economic growth and development as the first tranche of a $750m World Bank loan is expected by December 2022, NwafoLive has learnt.
According to the final report for State Action on Business Enabling Reforms obtained from the World Bank’s website, about $0.5 million to $4 million would be released to Nigerian states based on certain criteria.
The fresh loan is from a Program for Results instrument under the State Action on Business Enabling Reforms. According to the World Bank, the programme would run from 2023 to 2025. It will be built on the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council.
The programme aims to improve the efficiency of land administration, the regulatory framework for private investment in fiber optic infrastructure, services provided by investment promotion agencies and public-private partnership units. It is also targeted at achieving efficiency and transparency of government-to-business services in participating states.
The report read in part, “This proposed $750 million lending operation will last from 2023-2025 and consists of: (1) a $730million performance-based financing component for state governments, which will be implemented as a Program-for-Results; and (2) a $20 million Technical Assistance component which will be implemented as Investment Project Financing to support implementation and capacity building.”
The disbursement will be in line with certain disbursement-linked indicators, which means the states are meant to achieve certain criteria to be qualified for each disbursement under this programme.
The report noted, “Achievement of each prior result will result in indicative disbursement of an allocation of $0.5 million to $4 million (for select stretch targets).”
