The federal government is planning to borrow $750 million on behalf of states to stimulate local economies in Nigeria.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, made this disclosure in Abuja on Friday at the inauguration ceremony of the Federal Steering Committees of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (N-CARES).
According to the Finance Minister, the Nigerian Government “is in the process of accessing a World Bank loan of $750 million on behalf of the states to stimulate the local economy and support vulnerable household consumption”.
In going to borrow the money, the federal government is considering the causes and consequences of civil unrest and COVID-19 in the country.
Zainab Ahmed stated that: “the consequences will be too high if we ignore the root cause of rising civil unrest in our country. We must, therefore, fashion out ways of ensuring that post Covid-19 is not injurious to the Nigerian people and the economy.”
The Finance Minister noted that “the federal government has created several windows of interventions as captured in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) to, among other things, respond robustly and appropriately to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, identify fiscal measures to enhance oil and non-oil government revenues and reduce non-essential spending”.
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