President of the World Bank Group, Mr.
David Malpass, said these while responding to a THISDAY question during a
virtual media briefing with West and Central African journalists.
Malpass said: “Nigeria has huge potential
and with some of the improvements in its economic policies, growth can be rapid
for people in Nigeria.
“We have encouraged efforts that would
reduce subsidies for fossil fuel; encourage trade across borders and very
importantly, multiple exchange rates have been a burden on the people of Nigeria
and we have encouraged the unification of rates so that money, investments and
remittances can flow in and out of Nigeria with less friction. Our programmes
remain strongly supportive of the people of Nigeria and in Nigeria.”
Malpass said the multilateral institution
would invest and mobilise about $150 billion in Nigeria and other African
countries in the next five years.
According to him, over the last 10 years,
the World Bank Group has invested over $200 billion in Africa and, “in five
years, we intend to invest and mobilise about $150 billion in Africa to support
the continent’s recovery.”
He stated that a large portion of that
would be in the form of grants and long-term zero interest rate loans from the
International Development Association (IDA), an international financial
institution which offers concessional loans and grants to the world’s poorest
developing countries.
“So, we are working on an ambitious IDA
replenishment to be completed by 2021 and that would be critical for the
concessional financing and grants that the IDA countries in Africa need. So,
that gives you the context of the funding support that we are doing, both for
the public sector and the private sector through IFC in Africa.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have
invested more than $24 billion in Africa to support health and economic
recovery. Our board authorised $12 billion for the vaccination effort and as of
today, 38 African countries have requested support for vaccination efforts and
18 of those are from West and Central Africa,” he added.
He said the delay in vaccine supply was
deepening inequality and division in the world, adding that it has a serious
consequence on fragility and for people’s lives and livelihood.
He urged countries that have access to
vaccine supplies to release them, “as soon as possible to developing countries
that have deliberate programmes in place.”
According to Malpass, debt sustainability
remains a major problem in West Africa, saying that as COVID-19 persists into
2021, the debt situation in the sub-region will deteriorate further.
He said a comprehensive debt solutions
should involve four elements: debt suspension; debt reduction, debt resolution
and debt transparency.
“One of the themes from the press
conference two days ago was the call by African heads of state for cancellation
of debts. But that is not the direction that the world is moving at this point.
A permanent solution is necessary for this debt overhang for countries that
have unsustainable debt level.
“The World Bank is working closely with the
IMF to try and implement the G-20 common framework for debt reduction. Full
private sector participation is an essential part of any lasting debt
sustainability.
“We know the road to recovery would be a
long one; the countries in the region have applied lessons from previous crisis
such as the Ebola outbreak in 2014. Many countries have strengthened their
social safety net to help protect the poor and the World Bank Group is working
actively on those efforts and we think they are important preparations for
future crisis. We want to move faster on the key reforms in each of the
countries to help attract new investments.
“Throughout Africa, if one of the major
economies can do well, it has very positive synergies with its neighbours and
that is one of our primary goals to have successful economies that bring
synergies with its neighbours because that is the only way there can be massive
progress in Africa,” he stated.
Also, the World Bank’s Vice President,
Western and Central Africa, Ousmane Diagana, stated that in Africa, the
Washington-based institution’s largest programmes are in Nigeria, estimated at
more than $12 billion.
He said: “Those are a programme under
implementation in priority sectors. Access to electricity, health, water,
education, agriculture, and especially this year, we have given about $2
billion to Nigeria in order to help the population have access to critical
services and to provide technical assistance. We have seen progress in policies
for Nigeria and the country is a very important partner for the bank.”
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