The Federal Government said it is negotiating a $500 million loan facility from the World Bank to implement the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE) project.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, disclosed this during a courtesy visit to his office by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission Chief for Nigeria, Axel Schimmelpfennig yesterday.
The facility, according to the minister, will increase the availability and effectiveness of financing basic education and primary health care in the various states of the federation.
He said the fund would enhance transparency and accountability for basic education and primary health care in addition to improving recruitments, deployments and better performance metrics of teachers.
While appreciating the support of the World Bank, Bagudu said that the Nigerian Constitution is the legal framework that provides the rules and procedures that guide the budget process in addition to empowering the federal and state governments to make expenditures in line with the services of the government.
“This expenditure can continue for a period not exceeding six months or until the coming into operation of the law as can be seen on Chapter 5, Part 2, Section 122 of the Nigerian Constitution,” he said.
Bagudu explained that the reforms embarked on by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration were aimed at developing and implementing economic and tax reforms that would guarantee more functional Public Financial Management (PFM) systems in the country.
“The economic reforms are necessary decisions to put the Nigerian economy on the right track,” he said.
He assured the IMF team that though Nigeria is experiencing several challenges because of fuel subsidy removal, floating of foreign exchange and electricity reforms, the country was on course to economic recovery.
He appreciated the willingness of the IMF to support Nigeria and called for more support around resource mobilisation from multinational partners to develop all sectors of the economy.
Schimmelpfennig said he was in the country to have interactions with the minister on the workings of the Nigerian budgeting process with particular emphasis on the simultaneous implementation of the 2023/2024 budgets and supplementary budgets in the same year in preparation for the publication of the 2025 annual report of the World Bank.
Schimmelpfennig welcomed the tax reforms of the federal government as increased revenue generation would ensure more development for Nigerian citizens.
