Wale Edun, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, says in two weeks, the World Bank board of directors would consider athe country qualified for the World Bank loan of $2.25 billion, with a 1 percent interest rate.Edun said the country would receive part of the funding soon.In two weeks’ time, the board of the World Bank will consider a $2.25 billion package for Nigeria of, like I say, virtually free money or almost grant funding,” he said.
“A large part of it, $1.5 billion, is what they call ‘development policy operation’,” the minister said. “Essentially, it is in recognition of what has been done to stabilise the Nigerian economy and get it back on the path to growth and the funding will come virtually immediately.“At least, the one part of it will come virtually immediately after that board meeting.”According to the minister, this shows that‘WHY MULTINATIONAL FIRMS ARE LEAVING NIGERIA’Speaking further, Edun said in the past, foreign companies exited the country due to lack of access to a liquid foreign exchange market.
“When we look at the economic climate, one of the major drawback elements for them is that they did not have a liquid foreign exchange market,” he said.“It is elevated, maybe it is not at levels we would like it to be, but it is when you get the inflation down that you can stabilise the exchange rate and even get it coming down — similarly with the interest rates.”The minister also said inflation as well as food prices are projected to drop over the next few months.