The World Bank has fully disbursed a $1.5bn loan to Nigeria following the Federal Government’s implementation of key reforms, including removing fuel subsidies and introducing comprehensive tax policies, The PUNCH reports.
The loan, part of the Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing initiative, is among the fastest disbursements Nigeria has received with both tranches released in less than six months.
According to a World Bank document obtained by The PUNCH on Sunday, the loan was approved on June 13, 2024, with the first tranche of $750m disbursed on July 2, 2024.
The second tranche, tied to the fulfilment of specific economic reform conditions, was disbursed in November 2024.
This rapid disbursement contrasts with other loan programmes, which typically experience delays due to slow or partial implementation of conditions.
For more context, another loan of $750m was approved on the same day (June 13, 2024) for the Accelerating Resource Mobilisation Reforms Programme for Results project in Nigeria.
The PUNCH observed that the World Bank has only disbursed about $1.88m to Nigeria at the time of filing this story, which is less than one per cent of the total approved $750m for the ARMOR project.
