The World Bank has indicated its willingness to provide technical support to Nigeria in critical areas, especially the government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) to boost the nation’s growth development.
Giving the hint during a discussion with the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, the bank’s Vice-President for Africa, Mr. Hafez Ghanem, said that the multilateral financial institution accorded Nigeria top priority in its considerations.
Specifically, he said that the bank would be willing to provide technical support for Nigeria in the areas of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) mid-term review, power sector reform, Public-Private Partnerships as well as population management.
Ghanem also hinted that the Breton Woods institution was also kindly disposed to providing technical support on the ERGP delivery, performance tracking and reporting, capacity building for sector officials and economic modelling for policy analysis and forecasting, promising that the bank will increase its support for the country’s Social Investment Programme.
In his remarks, the minister pointed out that it would be appreciated if the World Bank chief could help designate a special session during the forthcoming International Monetary Fund/World Bank meetings in Indonesia to enable Nigerian representatives speak to participants about the ERGP.
This, he projected, would help in attracting more investments into the country to further facilitate the achievements of the objectives and targets of the plan.
In a related development, the Federal Government also solicited the bank’s support to accelerate the current reforms in the power sector.
The appeal was made by the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, when she met with the World Bank Vice President in Abuja on Thursday.
Adeosun said the World Bank had enough expertise in the power sector to assist Nigeria in the power sector reforms, adding that the need to fast-track the reforms is one of the major priorities of the Federal Government.
She clarified: “We hope to accelerate the growth, and the interaction with the World Bank is how we do that. And how do we leverage the technical capacity and global reach and wealth of experience to ensure we not only preserve the growth, which is quite slow at the moment, but to accelerate the growth so that we don’t have boom and burst circles?”
