In the New partnership strategy with Nigeria, the Africa's largest economy, World Bank will fund projects worth $8 billion (about N1.28 trillion) targeting job creation, social services and good governance.
Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly, World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria opined that the world bank assistance programes will also include social protection programmes, education, health and water service delivery for the vulnerable Nigerians across the country.
Nigeria, as the Black and Africa most populous country on earth wil receive $2 billion yearly. The World Bank’s Team Leader for New Strategy,Indira Konjhodzic was quoted as saying that the bulk of the financing programme will focus on increasing installed power generation and transmission capacity and improving the efficiency and governance of electricity delivery.
The fund will also boost farming and help increase access to finance for women. The new partnership will also ensure the World Bank to reduce extreme poverty in Nigeria, where at least seven per cent of the world’s 1.2 billion poor people live.
Only two countries, India and China, are home to a greater share of poor people. The most recent poverty survey by the Nigerian statistics office showed that 61 per cent of citizens were living on less than a dollar a day in 2010, up from 52 per cent in 2004.
On Power generation, the Federal Government has also made huge investments in the power sector before its privatisation to make it attractive to investors.
The process led to the unbundling of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) from where 18 successor companies were created. The companies comprise 11 distribution firms, six generation companies and one transmission firm-Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) – which is under the management of Manitoba Hydro International.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said that on or before 2015, the Federal Government would have concluded the sale of all power assets. The sale of 15 assets, including 10 distribution and five generation companies, have been concluded. The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) has also concluded the process for the privatisation of its 10 power plants under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).
The BPE said of the 14 successor companies handed over, $2, 525,824,534 was realised as proceeds. Of the amount, $1,256,000,000 came from the DISCOs. The GENCOs raked in $1, 269,824,534.
No comments:
Post a Comment