The World Bank has committed $8.5 billion to Nigeria to fund critical issues ranging from agriculture to education. Disclosing this on Thursday in Abuja during a summit organised by the Emergency Coordination Center, the World Bank Country Director to Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, noted that the amount was the largest of any country.
He noted that it was still infinitesimal compared with the needs of Nigeria, stressing, however, that around $2.5 billion to $3 billion of the fund had been channeled towards education.
“Half of the population of Nigeria itself is less than 17 years old. This means there is a need to invest in human capital development,” he said. He noted that the future of Nigeria depended on the ability of the young people to go to school, stressing that it was important to make schools safe to ensure that fewer children were out of school.
He further said it was Nigeria’s call to determine how it would mobilise its financial resources to enable young Nigerians to go to school or whether its scarce resources would be used to subsidise petrol with over N6.5 trillion.
