THE Federal Government will soon receive additional $114m from the World Bank to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic.
This followed an approval by the World Bank for the money to be released to Nigeria.
The Bank confirmed this development in a statement issued on Friday.
The Country Director of the World Bank, Shubham Chaudhuri, had said that the lender might approve Nigeria’s $1.5bn loan request early August.
Nigeria’s Finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, had said that the loan would be used to finance the country’s budget deficit. However, the $1.5bn loan suffered a delay as the World Bank Board failed to meet.
But the statement said the Bank gave an approval of a separate facility to facilitate Nigeria’s COVID-19 response after recording 45,000 cases to date.
According to the World bank, the facility will come in the form of a $100m loan and a $14m grant.
The $114m will be shared among the 36 states and the Federal Government for the procurement of medical equipment, tests kits and medicine to combat the pandemic.
“Nigeria has ramped up its efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, but more needs to be done at the states’ level, which are at the front line of the response,” Chaudhuri said.
The pandemic, which has affected many businesses, is expected to push the country into its worse recession in 40 years by the end of this year, according to experts.
