Minister of Finance and Coordinating minister for the Economy, Wale Edun, at the weekend confirmed ongoing talks with the World Bank for a $1.5 billion concessionary loan to support budget funding and signaled that the money will likely come in soon.
Edun, who confirmed the development during a press meeting on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Marrakech, Morocco, said the loan request will possibly be discussed as the Federal Executive Council (FEC) met yesterday.
On the talks with the World Bank on $1.5 billion budget support, that is correct. The World Bank is the number one multi-lateral development bank helping developing countries or funding developing countries, projects and programmes, and sectors. It has free money, through its International Development Association, (IDA).
It is for the poorer countries; and right now, I think we qualify as one of the countries that can borrow in the normal window of World Bank funding, but also some concessionary IDA funding; and that means that effectively the interest rate will be zero, Edun stated.
