The World Bank Group’s lending portfolio for various programmes and projects in Nigeria has risen to $8.52 billion, up from the $5.73 billion in May 2015, representing a 48.69 percent growth in three year s.
Based on the$8.52 billion commitment to Nigeria, the World Bank accounts for 38.6 percent of the nation’s foreign debt portfolio totalling $22.07 billion at the end of March this year.
Data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) indicated that Breton Woods institution’s funding commitment to Nigeria the figures did not cover new disbursements and approvals in the country’s debt statistics.
For instance, the approval by the bank’s board in June this year totalling $2.1 billion to support the nation’s investments in seven projects, including nutrition, access to electricity, states’ fiscal transparency, polio eradication, women’s economic empowerment, public finance and national statistics, and reducing vulnerability to soil erosion was not captured by the DMO’s report.
According to the statistics, the greater chunk of the World Bank Group’s funding support totalling $8.4 billion was provided the International Development Association, the private sector lending arm of the multilateral financial institution.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), another arm of the group, provided $124.18 million for the country
In addition to the World Bank Group’s liabilities, Nigeria has also explored funding windows offered by other multilateral institutions, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), with a debt portfolio of $1.32 billion; the African Development Fund (AFD), $835.14 million; and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), with a debt profile of $160.38 million.
Others are, the Arab Bank for Economic Development, with a portfolio of $5.88 million; the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), with a loan portfolio of $17.5 million; and EDF Energy (France), with a funding assistance totalling $70.28 million
At the bilateral level, Nigeria is indebted to the Export Import Bank (EximBank) of China, to the tune of $1.9 billion; the Agence Francaise de Developpement, to the sum of $274.98 million; Germany to the tune of $92.94 million; and the Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA) for amount totalling $77.6 million.
According to the DMO, the commercial loans’ profile now stands at $8.8 billion or 39.87 percent of the country’s external debt exposure, with a value of. The commercial loans comprise $8.5 billion Eurobonds while the Diaspora Bond component, through which government borrowed from Nigerians abroad, totalled $300 million.
Overall, the official data by the DMO showed that while the multilateral institutions account for 49.52 per cent of the country’s external debt profile, their bilateral counterparts account for $2.34 billion or 10.61 percent.
