Nigeria Receives $1.13 Billion Loan From World Bank After Repaying China, IMF, Others

• Nigeria's loan request of $1.13 billion has been approved, according to the World Bank report
• Three funding requests were approved for quality education, household and community resilience, and nutrition
• On February 28, the federal government said it expects to receive $2.2 billion in new World Bank loans in 2025

Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.

The World Bank reports that Nigeria's loan request of $1.13 billion has been granted.

Details on the bank's website on Wednesday show that three separate financing requests for projects aimed at improving nutrition, household and community resilience, and quality education were accepted in March.

According to the World Bank, on March 31, $552 million for the "HOPE for Quality Basic Education for All program" and $80 million for the "Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria 2.0" project were authorized.

A $500 million loan for Nigeria's "Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus Programme" was also approved by the lender on March 28, according to additional checks conducted by TheCable.

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The federal government announced on February 28 that it anticipates receiving $2.2 billion in fresh World Bank loans in 2025.

The $2.2 billion is expected to be distributed among six projects, under the financial institution's project list based in Washington, The Cable reported.

In 2024, Nigeria received $1.5 billion from the international lender for several important development projects aimed at enhancing the nation's capacity to mobilize resources and uphold economic stability.

As of September 30, 2024, Nigeria's loan exposure from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank allegedly increased to $17.1 billion.

Nigeria continued to hold the third position on the IDA's list of the top 10 borrowers as per its September 2024 financial statement.

Nigeria was still the third-largest debtor to the World Bank's IDA, despite its exposure decreasing to $16.8 billion as of December 31, 2024.

Legit.ng had reported that the World Bank has completed the disbursement of a $1.5 billion loan following Nigeria’s implementation of essential reforms, including petrol subsidy removal and tax reforms.

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This is part of the Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing scheme and also one of the fastest disbursements Nigeria has received, with both tranches coming in less than six weeks.

A World Bank document shows that the loan was approved on June 13, 2024, and the first payment was made on July 2, 2024.

Nigeria successfully pays back China, India, IMF, others $560m

Legit.ng reported that in January 2024, the federal government paid $560 million to service the nation's external debt.

Compared to the $112 million paid on debt service in January of 2023, the amount spent in January was 339% greater, according to an analysis of the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) Weekly International Payments.

Nigeria paid $3.5 billion in 2023 as repayment for its external debt, a substantial rise above the $2.4 billion spent in 2021.

Source: Legit.ng