The World Bank Group’s loan and grant approvals for Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries have hit $10.6bn.
In
its 2014 Annual Report, the bank said its assistance to Africa reached a
record high this fiscal year with the approval of $10.6bn for 141
projects.
The support include $420m
from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and
$10.2bn from the International Development Association.
The
leading sectors that benefitted from the assistance were public
administration, law and justice ($2.1bn); energy and mining ($1.9bn);
and transport ($1.5bn).
Specifically
on Nigeria, the bank said, “In a major push, the IBRD, IFC and MIGA
combined forces under a joint energy business plan for Nigeria.
“The
plan will support Nigeria’s energy reform programme and help to
increase installed generation capacity by about 1,000 megawatts, while
mobilising nearly $1.7bn of private sector financing for Africa’s
largest economy.”
On growth rate in
the African region, the bank said, “Sub-Saharan Africa continued to grow
strongly in 2013, with output increasing by 4.7 per cent. Excluding
South Africa, growth was six per cent, well above the global Gross
Domestic Product average of 2.4 per cent.
“The
region is expected to remain one of the world’s fastest growing, with
its GDP projected to rise to above per cent per cent in 2015–16.
“The
share of people living on less than $1.25 a day declined from an
estimated 58 per cent to 48.5 per cent between 1996 and 2010. If recent
trends of a one per cent per year decline are sustained, poverty rates
will fall below 30 per cent by 2030.”
The
report stated that the bank supported country-led efforts to improve
agricultural productivity by linking farmers to markets and reducing
risk and vulnerability, to increase rural employment, and make
agriculture more environmentally sustainable.
This
fiscal year, it provided more than $1.1bn in agricultural assistance to
sub-Saharan Africa, a 33 per cent increase over the past two years, it
said.
Priority projects included
support in Ethiopia for improving pastoralism through community
development and livelihoods, and sub-regional support for promoting
agribusiness in Senegal, and meeting food security and emergency needs
in the Central African Republic and Madagascar.
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