Palliative loan: World Bank boosts its payment to $315 million for Nigeria
Palliative loan: World Bank boosts its payment to $315 million for Nigeria
Palliative loan: Out of the $800 million authorized for the National Social Safety-Net Program Scale Up (NSSP-SU), the World Bank has upped its payment to Nigeria from roughly $300 million to $315 million.
This indicates that, following the prior transaction, which Nairametrics exclusively disclosed, roughly $15 million was released to Nigeria within a month.
About 42% of the total loan has not yet been disbursed, with a pending balance of approximately $428.31 million, according to the project’s Implementation Status & Results Report.
According to a World Bank document, of the $800 million, roughly $600 million will go toward Economic Shock Responsive Cash Transfer (ESR-CT), $147 million toward Extended Regular Cash Transfer (ER-CT) for the underprivileged and vulnerable, and $53 million toward project management and delivery system strengthening.
Project Goals
The Federal Government intended to reach almost five million recipients by mid-December, according to the paper.
Nevertheless, just 1.5 million households—or around 0.1% of the project’s total objective of 15 million households—have gotten cash transfers.
Additionally, the Federal Government wrote to the World Bank to change the project’s original objective, which called for disbursing N5,000 per month to vulnerable and impoverished Nigerians, to N25,000 per month spread over three months.
The text of the document said:
“The start of project implementation and disbursements has been approved by the Federal Ministry of Finance. Since then, over 1.5 million households have already received transfers into their accounts as a result of the project’s first drawdown of USD 315 million and the start of initial cash transfers to low-income and vulnerable households. The project to steadily increase cash transfers to households is receiving support from the task team, and by mid-December, at least 5 million people are expected to have been reached.
The government’s decision to alter the program’s parameters with an emphasis on the economic shock response has been communicated by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. It has now been decided to provide N25,000 in cash transfers over three months to 15 million households.
Additionally, it was revealed that the units carrying out the project are collaborating with the National Identity Management (NIMC) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to effectively enroll beneficiaries and issue a Bank Verification Number (BVN) or National Identity Number (NIN) for account operations.
Before this, the CBN declared that, as of April 2024, all bank accounts lacking a BVN and NIN will be set to “Post no Debit.” Additionally, according to the apex bank, by January 31, 2024, all BVNs and/or NINs connected to, associated with, or tied to accounts or wallets must undergo electronic revalidation.
What You Must Understand
The World Bank approved the National Social Safety Net Programme-Scale Up on December 16, 2021, and it is anticipated to operate until June 30, 2024.
The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs & Poverty Alleviation will carry out the $800 million initiative.
With the help of this loan, the Federal Government intends to launch a monthly cash transfer program for Nigerians who are vulnerable and impoverished and who have been severely impacted by recent policies like the elimination of fuel subsidies.
President Bola Tinubu finally began the much anticipated conditional cash transfer program in October 2023. The initiative is intended to provide 15 million households nationwide with N75,000 within three months.
Palliative loan, World Bank, National Social Safety-Net Program Scale Up,
NSSP-SU,
