World Bank approves fresh $500m loan for FG

The World Bank Group has approved a loan of $500m for Nigeria’s federal government to help drive women’s empowerment.

According to reports, this is the second loan approved by the World Bank under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.

The fresh loan is scale-up financing for Nigeria for Women Programme, which was initially approved on June 27, 2018, with $100m financing.

A statement by the World Bank read in part, “The World Bank has approved $500m for Nigeria for Women Program Scale Up (NFWP-SU). The scale-up financing will further support the government of Nigeria to invest in improving the livelihoods of women in Nigeria.

“The NFWP-SU will help to ensure better economic opportunities for women, which is essential for addressing gender inequality; guaranteeing better education, health, and nutrition outcomes for families; and building women’s and communities’ resilience to climate change.”

The World Bank stressed the need for the government to address issues that inhibit women’s economic empowerment and hinder inclusive, low-carbon, and resilient economic growth.

It noted that women’s empowerment is essential to their ability to build resilience to climate change and, by extension, the resilience of their households and communities.

The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, said, “We have seen promising outcomes from the parent NFWP which has helped create economic opportunities for thousands of rural women through the Women Affinity Groups. NFWP’s model is helping to improve livelihood opportunities for women and enhancing their capacity to adapt to climate change and to participate in local administrations for policymaking related to community empowerment.

“Closing the gender gap in key economic sectors could yield gains of between $9.3bn and $22.9bn, we are optimistic that this scale-up will help Nigeria to move closer to bridging this gap.”