By LAGOS, Nigeria – The World Bank has approved a $1.57 billion financing package for Nigeria as part of a new program to support its health and education sectors and help provide sustainable power, the bank said on Monday.
The World Bank is the largest lender to Nigeria, with more than $15 billion in loans at the end of March, data from the Debt Management Office showed.
The bank said in a statement that the money would help increase availability and effectiveness of financing for basic education and primary healthcare service delivery. “The new financing includes $500 million for addressing governance issues that constrain the delivery of education and health, $570 million for the Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Program and $500 million for the Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria Project,” the bank said.
The bank said in a statement that the money would help increase availability and effectiveness of financing for basic education and primary healthcare service delivery.
Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children, primarily due to insecurity, particularly in the northern region, where a long-standing Islamist insurgency and armed kidnapping groups have created widespread disruption.
The World Bank said part of the money would be used to improve dam safety to protect communities from flooding. Nigeria regularly experiences severe flooding, and this year, up to a million people were affected when a dam in Borno State, in the northeast, burst.
More floods are expected in Nigeria after authorities in Cameroon started releasing water from a large dam to prevent it from overflowing.
