The Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has hinted at the federal government is seeking $750 million dollar loan from the World Bank, to help states curb the impact of COVID-19.
According to the minister, the facility is intended for the stimulation of the economy and also to assist vulnerable household consumption.
This disclosure was made at the inauguration ceremony of the Federal Steering Committees of the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (N-CARES) program, in Abuja.
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The minister stated that the federal government has put in place windows of intervention, as captured in the economic sustainability plan inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari, in March 2020.
She emphasized the need to take the loan was necisitated by considerations of the cause and consequences of civil unrest.
Accordig to Zainab Ahmed, “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,”.
She also stated that to ensure that the implementation of the N-CARES is consistent with the federal government priorities as outlined in the ESP, the Federal Steering Committee made up of ministers and permanent secretaries as well as a Technical Committee, made up of directors of key ministries, department, and agencies (MDAs) has to be in place.
The minister of finance said that government carefully selected the “members of the Federal Steering and Technical Committees because of the important role MDAs play in the recovery of the Nigerian economy as well as the fulfillment of lifting 100 million people out of poverty”.
Speaking on the expediency of the inauguration of the committee, the Finance Minister said, “the inauguration of the committees “is expedient given the nature of this emergency intervention; Nigeria as the biggest economy in Africa cannot afford to remain in recession; the survival of over 200 million population is germane to all we do and we must address the concerns of the majority of our populace”.
