Minister Urges States to Access $329.52m World Bank NG-CARES Funds

Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and Economic planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu has called on the 36 states of the federation as well as  the Federal Capital Territory to hasten efforts in accessing the balance of the $750 million World Bank-supported COVID-19 Action for Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme.

The NG-CARES programme is a multi-sectoral initiative designed to provide immediate relief to vulnerable and poor Nigerians, small holder farmers and SMEs who were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective is to protect the livelihoods and food security of poor and vulnerable families and facilitate the recovery of local economic activity in all participating states across Nigeria.

The interventions were included to choose shocks like flooding, natural disasters, impact of economic policies that can trigger social unrest and worsening poverty among the poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

Speaking at the inauguration of the federal care steering committee for the programme on Tuesday, Bagudu also disclosed that $8 billion World Bank concession loan at less than two percent was yet to be accessed by the states and FCT while expressing concern over the poor attitude of the sub-nationals in accessing development and economic empowerment funds.

“The challenge we have is low disbursement. Because from the $15 billion portfolio, about $8 billion is not disbursed. So, if we can accelerate it, that is a source of funding to the federal and state governments,” he said.

He added that Nigeria has reached the limit of borrowing from the less than two percent interest loan facility of the World Bank, adding that the government needs to quickly disburse the funds to be able to access such low-interest facilities of the global financial institution.

The World Bank representative in the NG-CARES committee, Lire Ersado, said the fact that the programme is owned by the states while the World Bank provides the incentives makes it easy for implementation.

He said NG-CARES caters for the different and diverse needs of the states based on their needs.

Under the scheme, each state chooses what works for it, including adverse effects of subsidy reforms and effects of flooding while focusing on the three result areas: social transfer and livelihood, agriculture and support to SMEs, and 11 disbursement-linked indicators.

He also stressed the need to ensure the sustainability of the programme.