The World Bank Group has disclosed that Nigeria and 19 other countries benefitted about $2.69bn from the guarantees issued under the COVID-19 Fast Track Facility between 2020 and 2021.
The Breton Woods institution made the disclosure in one of its newly published FY21 Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency’s (MIGA’s) financial statement.
It listed other beneficiaries of the guarantees’ facility as including Albania, Argentina, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Botswana, Chile, Eswatini, Georgia, Ghana, Kosovo, Lesotho, Moldova, Montenegro, Mozambique, North Macedonia, Peru, Serbia, Ukraine and Zambia.
According to the bank, the MIGA launched a $6.5bn Fast-track facility in April 2020 as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic to support private sector investors and lenders in emerging markets and developing countries.
It stated: “In response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, MIGA launched a $6.5bn Fast-track facility in April 2020.The facility was geared towards supporting private sector investors and lenders in emerging markets and developing economies, and was structured around the following three pillars,” it stated.
Specifically, the multilateral financial institution stated that Nigeria and the other countries benefited under the second pillar with guarantees totalling $1.127bn in FY20 and $1.563bn in FY21.
Under the pillar, the guarantees were offered for capital optimization, which means support for financial institutions in extending lending in host countries by freeing up risk weighted assets locked up in maintaining their mandatory reserves with central banks.
