The Nigerian government has revealed that the $3 billion loan facility it is seeking from the World Bank would be used to carry out reforms in the nation’s power sector.
Reports from the ongoing World Bank/International Monetary Fund meetings holding in Washington DC, United States, qouted the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed saying that she would be holding further discussions with the management of the Bank to present how the fund would be disbursed for the project.
According to her, based on the plan of the Federal Government for the power sector, the loan would be used for the development of transmission and distribution networks to enhance the delivery of electricity and other challenges currently facing the power sector.
She said: “There is a proposed $2.5bn to $3bn facility for the power sector development programme in Nigeria and this will include development of the transmission networks and the distribution networks as well as removing the challenges that we currently have now in the electricity sector.
“We are going to have a full meeting to discuss the power sector recovery programme and back home we have been working a great deal with the World Bank to design how this programme will be implemented.
“So we have an opportunity now to have a direct meeting with the leadership of the bank and to tell them the plan we have and how much we need from one to five years.”
According to the Finance Minister, the government would be pushing for the disbursement of the $3bn facility in two tranches of $1.5bn each.
