The Federal Government of Nigeria has opened discussions with the World Bank Group for three new loans totalling $1.5bn, latest documents from the World Bank Group have reflected.
The latest data from the Bretton Woods development finance institution on the Nigerian government’s loan proposals revealed that the facility comprised $500m each intended to fund the nations climate resilience, social protection and early childhood development programmes.
The most prioritized programme by the government is a proposed $500m additional financing for the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes project, known as ACReSAL, which the World Bank Group has fixed October 29, 2026, as the date for consideration by its board.
ACReSAL is currently operating across 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory and is targeted at land degradation, water insecurity, climate vulnerability and declining agricultural productivity.
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If approved, the facility would raise the funding of the ACReSAL to $1.2bn, up from the previously approved $700m, and will be financed by the World Bank’s concessional financing arm, the International Development Association (IDA).
The World Bank Group stated: “The Government of Nigeria has requested AF of $500m to scale up demonstrated project results and strengthen the institutional, operational and financing arrangements needed to sustain integrated landscape management.”
Of the amount, $310m is proposed for dryland management, $165m for community climate resilience and $25m for institutional strengthening and project management.
The World Bank Group noted that desertification and land degradation affected an estimated 43 per cent of Nigeria’s land area, while failure to address climate change could reduce gross domestic product by about 2.6 per cent annually by 2030 and as much as 6.7 per cent by 2050.
The second proposed loan is another $500m IDA credit for the Household Prosperity and Empowerment-Social Protection (HOPE-SP) project.
Unlike the ACReSAL facility, the HOPE-SP project is at an earlier stage of preparation and its technical design review is expected on October 30, 2026, while the Washington D.C-based development finance institution has tentatively fixed March 16, 2027, as its approval date.
The project, which is designed to establish regular social assistance for poor and vulnerable households, while gradually shifting financing responsibility towards federal and state budgets, has an estimated cost of $500m, comprising a $420m results-based programme and an $80m investment project financing component, with the entire financing expected from IDA.
The World Bank Group document stated that the programme would establish “a sustainable social assistance to poor and vulnerable households, financed increasingly from federal and state budgets and delivered through strengthened state and local government systems.”
By its design, the HOPE-SP programme would finance targeted unconditional and conditional cash transfers, modernise the social registry, integrate the National Identification Number into the social protection information system and strengthen implementation at federal, state and local government levels.
The third $500m facility proposed by the Federal Government is for the Nigeria Early Childhood Development programme, with an estimated approval date of March 15, 2027, a day before the proposed HOPE-SP approval. Its technical design review is also scheduled for October 30, 2026.
The implementation of the project will cover all 36 states and the FCT and will help to improve access to an integrated package of health, nutrition, early learning, childcare, water and sanitation, and other services for children aged zero to five.
It would be financed through $500m IDA credit, consisting of a $400m programme-for-results component and $100m investment project financing component.
On the imperativeness of the intervention, the World Bank Group maintained that the it had become necessary because “40 percent of children under five are stunted, fewer than half are developmentally on track, 36 percent of children aged 36 to 59 months attend organised early learning,” with poor rural households carrying much of the burden.
The proposed borrowing comes as the latest data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) on Nigeria’s debt stock showed that Nigeria’s total public debt rose by N14.39tn from N152.40tn in June 2025 to N166.79tn as of the end of June 2026.
