The Federal Government has secured a $700m loan from the World Bank for specific water projects in the country, the Minister of Water Resources, Suleiman Adamu, has said. According to him, most of the problems associated with water supply in the country are the responsibilities of state governments.
The minister said these in an interview with journalists on Monday night during the maiden edition of the Rewards and Recognition Awards ceremony organised by the ministry in Abuja.
He said seven states, comprising Imo, Delta, Bauchi, Ekiti, Katsina, Kaduna and Plateau, were expected to benefit from the first tranche of the loan. According to him, the duty of the Federal Government in the area of water supply is to provide support to states.
The minister noted that lack of access to potable water had been a major problem for Nigerian communities. He said, “What Nigerians need to understand is that the Federal Government is not responsible for providing water in their taps; that is the responsibility of state governments and that is why we don’t have a federal water board.
Nigeria’s import index up by 0.52% amid higher food prices
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) yesterday, disclosed that the all-commodity group import index grew marginally by 0.52 per cent between July and September 2021.
The NBS disclosed this in the “Commodity Price Indices and Terms of Trade for Quarter Three, 2021” published on its website. The Bureau noted that the growth was driven mainly by-products of the chemical and allied industries, wood and articles of wood, wood charcoal and articles, paper making materials, paper, and paperboard articles.
It maintained that between July and August, the all-commodity group export price index averagely declined by 2.33 percent due to decreases in the prices of mineral products, animal and vegetable fats and oils and other cleavage products and vehicles, aircraft and parts as well as vessels.
The report said that for the all-region group import index, there was a 0.52 percent increase due to marginal increases in import prices from all the regions. It added that the all-region terms of trade on average decreased by 2.85 percent due to lower export prices to all the regions with rising import prices from all the regions.
