The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, last Wednesday disclosed that Nigeria has secured a World Bank facility worth $800 million.
According to her, the $800 million is the first tranche of palliatives to be disbursed through cash transfers to about 50 million Nigerians, who belong to the most vulnerable category in the society.
Details of a document seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed that the financing agreement is between Nigeria and the International Development Association (IDA), a part of the World Bank that helps the world’s poorest countries.
The amount is part of a sum considered to be “concessional financing”, the document showed.
According to the United States Agency International Development, concessional loans, or soft loans, have more generous terms than market loans. They include below-market interest rates, grace periods in which the loan recipient is not required to make debt payments for several years, or a combination of…