WB to fund projects on poverty reduction in Nigeria

• Source: Xinhua
• [12:14 June 27 2009]
• Comments

The World Bank (WB) has launched a 58-trillion-naira (about 400 million US dollars) project to increase access of the poor communities to social and economic services, according to the reports of the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday.

The project, aiming to boost its poverty reduction efforts in Nigeria, is known as the Community and Social Development Project (CSDP).

It is expected to gulp 400 million dollars with the World Bank contributing half of the amount while the benefiting states and communities would provide the balance.

It is also to sustainably increase access of poor people to social and natural resource infrastructure services.

Peter Papka, the project National Coordinator, disclosed this while briefing journalists on modalities for the implementation of the five-year (2009-2013).

He said 20 states had already signed on and met the conditionality for participation, adding that eight others were still in the process of joining.

Papka listed projects covered by the program to include rehabilitation, extension and construction of schools, health centers, feeder roads, water points and reservoirs and sanitation facilities.

Others are small bridges, markets, storage facilities or natural resource management facilities as well as environmental initiatives, among others.

He said the project was unique in the sense that it was demand- driven as funds would be provided only to communities that indicate interest to implement community development plans produced by them.

The coordinator added that adequate structures and institutional arrangements including safety nets, financial management system, and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms had been put in place to ensure that the expected outcomes and deliverables were achieved.

Also contributing, Foluso Okunmadewa, the World Bank Task Team Leader, said the success of the project would be measured by the number of poor Nigerians whose lives would be impacted.

He said as part of the safeguards, resources released to benefiting communities would be made public and that no additional resources would be disbursed until previous monies had been accounted for.

According to him, the World Bank contribution is interest-free with a 10-year moratorium and a 0.15-percent commitment charge.