World Bank approves $750 mln credit to boost Nigerian reforms

The World Bank said it has approved a $750 million credit line for Nigeria to help the country’s 36 states push through reforms to attract investment and create jobs.

Several states in Nigeria struggle to pay salaries due to low revenues and resort to borrowing from the domestic bond market and banks to fund infrastructure projects.

The World Bank said Nigeria had made progress in improving the ease of doing business but the country’s ability to attract domestic and foreign investment remained low compared with others.

“Private sector investments remain the major vehicle to create more jobs, increase revenues to the states and improve social and economic outcomes for citizens,” the World Bank’s country director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said in a statement late on Thursday.

The $750 million credit would improve land administration, telecommunications infrastructure, public-private partnerships, investment promotion and the business regulatory environment, the World Bank said.