FG yet to decide on World Bank loan

Nigeria’s Government is yet to decide on the size of a loan it plans to apply for from the World Bank to support its 2017 appropriation, officials said on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma said until the budget is passed by the National Assembly before the government can decided on the exact size of loan it plans to take and from what sources.

“We have to first of all get the budget passed by the national assembly before we can talk of raising money to fund the 2017 budget. “You borrow to fill a funding gap, so it depends on the size of the budget, we have proposed a size so assuming the national assembly reduces the size of the budget it reduces the deficit and it reduces the loan.
“So it when the loan is passed that you can dimension the exact amount of money and from which sources you will be securing them” Udoma said while briefing journalists after the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting.

The government last year planned to apply for a World Bank loan but the process was stalled as the international bank requested for its economic recovery plans. Nigerian authorities proposed to source N900 billion foreign borrowing in the 2016 budget to partly plunge the N2.22 trillion deficit of the N6.07 trillion budget hardly implemented due largely to funding constraints.

The Africa Development Bank (AfDB) which pledged some $1bn support since last year has so far brought in the first $600 million tranche but is obviously withholding the $400 million second tranche till the Nigerian government presents its recovery plan.

Udoma said there may be more releases made to bridge third quarter capital approvals as more money is already trickling into the country’s pockets following the stability in Niger Delta and the success of the Eurobond which was oversubscribed by over 8 times.

“Because of the funding constraints, the budget has a deficit, I traveled with Minister of Finance and CBN governor to market out eurobond. As you can see, the Eurobond was oversubscribed by over 8 times, so the funds are coming in, there is more stability in this Niger-Delta, so more money are coming in. So you will see some. The Federal Executive Council also approved a new new national draft health policy 2016, a third in the history of the country. This first policy was approved in 1988 while the second in 2004.
Health Minister, Isaac Adewale said the new policy is titled “ promoting the health of Nigerians to accelerate socio-economic development” He said the new policy provides direction necessary to support the achievement of significant progress interns of improving the performance of the national health system. “It also lays emphasis on primary healthcare as the bedrock of our national health system in addition to the provision of financial risk protection to all Nigerians particularly the poor and vulnerable population” he added.