Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has secured an additional $700 million loan from the World Bank to boost adolescent girls learning and empowerment, according to The ICIR.
The loan, according to the Bank, will support the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment programme among girls in some targeted states.
So far, Tinubu has collected $1.9 billion loan in three months.
“The additional financing will scale up project activities from the current seven states to eleven additional states and increase the targeted beneficiaries to include out-of-school girls, those who are married, and those who have disabilities,” said the organisation.
The loan was the third Nigeria secured from the Bank since President Bola Tinubu assumed office on May 29, 2023. This puts the total loan granted by the Bank to Nigeria at $1.95 billion between June and September 2023.
Meanwhile, data from the Debt Management Office showed that Nigeria has an outstanding external debt of $14.51 billion to the World Bank as of the second quarter of 2023.
$700 million AGILE loan
The $700 million loan allocated to Nigeria seeks to expand the AGILE projects to 11 states, thereby accommodating more out-of-school children, which had increased due to recurring insecurity crises, especially in the country’s Northern region, the World Bank noted.
The Bank said the AGILE programme had been implemented in seven states, increasing the number of secondary school girls from 900,000 to 1.6 million. These states are Borno, Ekiti, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, and Plateau.
World Bank said, “Under the programme, over 5,000 classrooms have been renovated, and over 250,000 eligible girls have received scholarships. The AGILE programme has supported the construction and rehabilitation of WASH facilities in secondary schools and the installation of computers and solar panels, making attending school more convenient and conducive for girls and boys. Life skills, systems strengthening, and advocacy are other key aspects of the programme which address social norms impeding girls’ education.”
$750 million loan for power projects
In June 2023, the international financial institution approved the first loan of $750 million for Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu’s government to boost the country’s power sector through the Power Sector Recovery Performance-Based Operation.
The loan is financed by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which would provide $449 million, and the International Development Association would provide $301 million.
The Bank said, “Nigeria has the world’s largest absolute electricity access deficit. Lack of access to the electricity grid affects 45 per cent of the population (90 million people), making Nigeria the country with the largest number of people not connected to electricity. As such, Nigeria accounts for 12 per cent of the global access deficit.”
A Nigerian owes N396,376.19- NBS
Meanwhile, data from National Bureau of Statistics, have shown that each Nigerian currently owes N396,376.19 in terms of debt per capita.
The NBS published that the country’s total public debt increased by 75.27 per cent from N49.85 trillion in the first quarter of 2023 to N87.38 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2023. In monetary terms, this is an increase of N37.53 trillion in three months.
According to the World Poverty Clock, Nigeria’s population is estimated at 220.4 million.
Breaking down by category, the total external debts by the federal government stood at N29.9 trillion, while the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory external debts were N3.35 trillion.
For domestic debts, the Federal government’s debt is N48.31 trillion, while for states and FCT is N5.82 trillion.
A report captured that the debts also contain the N22.71 trillion Ways and Means Advances of the Central Bank of Nigeria to the Federal government adding that other additions to the debt stock were new borrowings by the Federal government and sub-nationala from local and external sources.
According to NBS, the domestic debt as of the end of June 2023 was N54.13 trillion ($70,264.58 million), while external debt stood at N33.25 trillion ($43,159.19 million).
According to the data bureau, “Lagos state recorded the highest domestic debt in Q2 2023 with N996.44 billion, followed by Delta with N465.40 billion while Jigawa state recorded the lowest domestic debt with N43.13 billion, followed by Kebbi with N60.94 billion.
