The Nation Newspaper

Tag: world bank

  • Crude price rises by 12 per cent in Q2, says World Bank

    Crude price rises by 12 per cent in Q2, says World Bank

    The World Bank is nudging up its 2015 forecast for crude oil prices from $53 in April to $57 per barrel after oil prices rose 17 per cent in the April-June quarter, according to the Bank’s latest Commodity Markets Outlook, a quarterly update on the state of the international commodity markets.

    The Bank said energy prices rose 12 per cent in the quarter, with the surge in oil offset by declines in natural gas (down 13 percent) and coal prices (down four percent). However, the Bank said it expects energy prices to average 39 per cent below 2014 levels.

    It said natural gas prices are projected to decline across all three main markets—U.S., Europe, and Asia—and coal prices to fall 17 per cent.

    Excluding energy, the World Bank reported a two per cent decline in prices for the quarter, and forecasts that non-energy prices will average 12 percent below 2014 levels this year.

    “Demand for crude oil was higher than expected in the second quarter. Despite the marginal increase in the price forecast for 2015, large inventories and rising output from OPEC members suggest prices will likely remain weak in the medium-term,” said John Baffes, Senior Economist and lead author of Commodity Markets Outlook.

    Iran’s new nuclear agreement with the US and other leading governments, if ratified, will ease sanctions, including restrictions on oil exports from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

    Downside risks to the forecast include higher-than-expected non-OPEC production (supported by falling production costs) and continuing gains in OPEC output.

    The bank said possible upside pressures may come from closure of high-cost operations—the number of operational oil rigs in the US is down 60 percent since its November high, for example—and geopolitical tensions.

    In a special feature assessing the roles played by China and India in global commodity consumption, the Outlook finds that demand from China and, to a lesser extent, India, over the last two decades significantly raised global demand for metals and energy—especially coal—but less so for food commodities.

  • World Bank to rebuild Northeast with $2.1b

    World Bank to rebuild Northeast with $2.1b

    THE World Bank yesterday announced a $2 billion package to help the economy of the Northeast back on its feet.

    Unfolding the package, the bank said the funds will be spent in rebuilding the badly devastated Northeastern states, ravaged for the past six years by the Boko Haram insurgency.

    The $2.1 billion will be provided through the World Bank agency, International Development Agency (IDA), which offers low-interest rate loans to governments.

    Going by the conditions, the first 10 years will be interest-free and the interest for the next 30 years will be lower than the capital market rate.

    The worst-hit states in the region are: Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, where thousands have been killed and several others sacked from their homes by Boko Haram extremists.

    According to a statement by President Muhammadu’s Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Femi Adesina, the package was unfolded yesterday at a meeting in Washington D.C., United States (U.S.).

    The statement listed representatives of the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and President Buhari as those, who were at the meeting.

    It quoted the President as explaining that apart from rebuilding the region in terms of infrastructure, that priority must also be given to the resettlement of the more than one million people at the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

    Buhari urged the World Bank to send a team that will work in concert with Federal Government officials to do a proper assessment of the needs of the affected area.

    The statement reads: “The World Bank will spend the $2.1 billion through its IDA (International Development Agency), which gives low-interest rate loans to government.

    “The first 10 years will be interest-free, while an additional 30 years will be at lower than capital market rate.

    “The World Bank is eager to move in quickly, give out the loans, and give succor to the people of Northeast, long at the mercy of an insurgency that has claimed over 20,000 souls.

    “WHO is also to invest 300 million dollars on immunization against malaria in Nigeria, while the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will collaborate with Dangote Foundation to ensure that the country maintains its zero polio case record of the past one year. If the effort is sustained for another two years, Nigeria will be declared fully free of polio.”

  • World Bank, IMF to help improve tax system

    World Bank, IMF to help improve tax system

    The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have said they would establish an initiative to help developing countries strengthen their tax systems ahead of the Financing for Development conference scheduled in Ethiopia.

    According to a recent joint statement carried by their official websites, the two bodies vowed to deepen the dialogue with developing countries on international tax issues with an aim to help increase their weight.

    They bodies also said they wanted their voices to be heard in the international debate on tax rules and cooperation.

    The two international financial institutions also planned to develop diagnostic tools to help member countries evaluate and strengthen their tax policies.

    During the gathering scheduled for Monday to Thursday, Heads of State and multilateral institutions and representatives from private sector would discuss how to scale up financial strengths to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Chinese Finance Minister, Lou Jiwei, is expected to represent President Xi Jinping at the event.

  • Social Safety nets expand in developing countries, says World Bank

    Social Safety nets expand in developing countries, says World Bank

    A growing number of developing countries are investing in social safety nets to improve the lives and livelihoods of billions of poor and vulnerable people, yet around 55 percent of the world’s poor or 773 million people with acute needs still lack safety net coverage – especially in lower-income countries and in urban areas-and countries must take action to close this coverage gap, says a new World Bank Group report.

    According to The State of Social Safety Nets 2015, more than 1.9 billion people in 136 low- and middle-income countries are now on beneficiary rolls of social safety net programs. In Africa alone, the number of countries setting up social safety net programs has doubled over the past three years, as evidenced by rigorous evaluations that prove these programs work. But three quarters of the poorest people in low- and lower-middle income countries, and more than one-third of the poorest people in middle-income countries, lack safety net coverage and remain at risk.

    The report follows the recent joint statement by the heads of the World Bank Group and the International Labor Organisation (ILO), endorsing the goal of universal access to social protection – including safety nets- by 2030. The Third Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa next week is an opportunity to ensure that the international community has the means to make this vision a reality.

    “The World Bank Group and the ILO share a vision of social protection for all, a world where anyone who needs social protection can access it at any time,” said Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group President and Guy Ryder, Executive Director, ILO, in their joint statement. “The new development agenda that is being defined by the world community – the sustainable development goals (SDGs) – provides an unparalleled opportunity for our two institutions to join forces to make universal social protection a reality, for everyone, everywhere.”

    These programmes include cash and in-kind transfers targeted to poor and vulnerable households, with the goal of protecting families from the impact of economic shocks, natural disasters, and other crises; ensuring that children grow up healthy, well-fed, and can stay in school and learn; empowering women and girls; and creating jobs.

  • Lagos secures $200m World Bank loan to improve public finance, investment climate

    Lagos secures $200m World Bank loan to improve public finance, investment climate

    The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved $200 million credit to Lagos State to support a range of reforms pertaining to fiscal sustainability, budget planning, budget execution, and the investment climate in Lagos.

    A statement from the World Bank in Abuja yesterday, said the credit facility or ‘operation’ “will help sustain the state’s recent economic growth and poverty reduction, while continuing to deliver social services to the city’s expanding population.”

    The credit which would be sourced from the International Development Association (IDA), supports the Third Lagos State Development Policy Operation, is the last of a series of two development policy operations which aim to improve public finances and the investment climate in a fiscally sustainable manner.

    The statement said: “In the past decade, Lagos State achieved significant economic growth, improved its infrastructure and services, significantly reduced crime, and brought millions of people out of poverty.”

    According to the World Bank’s Jariya Hoffman, Task Team Leader for this Project “the operation’s focus on furthering improvements in the transparency of the budget system, effectiveness of public expenditures, and the business climate will help sustain the pace of economic growth and thus the state’s positive momentum towards income equality and the delivery of public services.  With enhanced budget transparency and efficiency, adequate funding can be shifted to programs to benefit the state’s booming population, especially the poorest families.”

    The World Bank added that “the operation will enhance the state government’s fiscal sustainability by anchoring the budget in a framework that accounts for key fiscal risks and improves revenue collection.

  • ‘Nigeria’s external debt hits $9.4b’

    ‘Nigeria’s external debt hits $9.4b’

    Nigeria’s external debt stock profile stood at $9.4 billion on March 31, this year, the Debt Management Office (DMO), information posted on DMO said yesterday.

    The figure showed a decrease of about $300 million  from the $9.7 billion that the country owed at December 31 last year.

    According to information on DPR website, the highest debt is owed the World Bank Group. International Development Association  $5.6billion and International Fund for Agricultural Development, $89.4million

    It further stated that Nigeria owes African Development Bank (AfDB) $200 million and the African Development Fund (ADF), $513.7 million. The ADF debt was incurred through the AfDB Group.

    Nigeria also owes Arab Bank Economic Development for Africa $4.4 million, while its debts to European Development Fund and Islamic Development Bank are $75.1 million and $19.6 million respectively.

    The record also showed that the country’s indebtedness through bilateral agreement to Exim Bank of China and French Development Agency are $1.2 billion and $140.2 million respectively.

    It further stated that Nigeria’s external debt stock through government’s issuance of Eurobond stood is $1.5 billion.

  • World Bank engages 4,000 Delta youths

    World Bank engages 4,000 Delta youths

    About 4,000 youths in Delta State have been engaged from 2013 till date under the State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR) project of the World Bank, the Delta Coordinator of the project, Mr Benson Ojoko, has said.

    Ojoko said this at a-one-day empowerment training workshop organised by SEEFOR for beneficiaries of the programme in the state on Tuesday in Asaba, the Dekta Statde capital. According to him, about 4,000 youths have been employed under the SEEFOR programme in the state to create value for the society since the introduction of the programme in 2013.

    “The 4,000 youths were engaged to maintain roads and refuse collection in the six local government areas where the SEEFOR project is currently implemented. The six cities where the programme is being implemented in the state are Asaba, Ughelli, Warri, Uvwie, Sapele and Udu,’’ he explained.

    Ojoko said beneficiaries would be trained on money management, entrepreneurship skills and mentorship. He explained that the workshop would help to empower the beneficiaries for entrepreneurship skills, adding that most of the beneficiaries were from poor background with little or no education.

    He said at the end of the training workshop, those who are interested in acquiring vocational and technical skills will be enrolled for further training.

    Ojoko said the programme, which was for a period of 12 months for each batch of beneficiaries, was geared towards poverty reduction as well as creating employment for the teeming youths in the state.

    Also speaking at the occasion, a former state Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Mr Kingsley Emu commended SEEFOR for sustaining the programme in the state.

    Emu also commended the beneficiaries for being part of the programme, adding that the state government was ready to support them in acquiring technical and vocational skills.

    “The state government has a total of eight vocational centres and it is ready to support you in acquiring more skills that will help you to be self-reliant in future,’’ he said.

  • Don’t depend on IMF, World Bank, Falana tells Buhari

    Don’t depend on IMF, World Bank, Falana tells Buhari

    •’CBN now Bureau de Change’

    Activist-lawyer Mr Femi Falana (SAN) has implored President Muhammadu  Buhari not to depend on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank for the nation’s economic revival.

    Falana also enjoined the President not to romance with the local captains of industry if he truly wants to grow the economy.

    He chided the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for its failure to monitor the nation’s economic policy.

    The lawyer spoke yesterday in Lagos at the National Discourse organised by The Companion, a group of Muslim men in business and professions, at the main auditorium of the University of Lagos, Akoka.

    Falana urged the President to form a link with the Nigerian people, saying the people should be identified through organisations, farmers, workers and the rest, and settle down to run the country on that basis.

    “If you are going to depend on IMF and World Bank and these funny characters called captains of industry, we are not going to make any progress,” he warned.

    “I want the president to form an organic link with the Nigerian people, not with Tony Blairs of this world, not with profiteers and rent collectors who you guys in the media regard as captains of industry; which industry? … that have collapsed? All these guys depend on duty waivers of trillions of naira. If you give me N500 billion worth of duty waivers, why will I not be the richest man in Africa?” he wondered.

    Falana decried the CBN’s deviation from its primary roles as the chief regulatory of body of the nation’s economy.

    “Our Central Bank,” he said, “has become a centre for Bureau de Change; it only talks of manipulating dollars. That is what Central Bank does now. It has nothing to do with acting as regulator of the monetary policy of our country. Once you have that kind of situation, you cannot put blame on corruption; corruption itself is manifestation of economic mismanagement. You can’t secure the lives of our people under this arrangement; you cannot create employment under this arrangement; you can’t generate electricity under this arrangement; we have spent $25 billion in the last 16 years to generate darkness; it is a shame that we now have power generation less than 2000 megawatts.

    Speaking on the theme Setting Agenda for the new government, Falana said that for the president to successfully fight corruption, some blockages had to be made, without which it would be an effort in futility.

    He urged Muslims in government to follow the teachings of the Holy Qu’ran because “the situation we find ourselves would have been solved long time ago, but due to greediness and having no regards for our creator.

    “The level of corruption in the country should be put on the Christian and Muslim leaders who have no regards for what they are taught in the two holy books.”

    Falana added that, corruption breeds unemployment and insecurity in the country, adding that President Buhari should remember what he said about the scourge during his electioneering campaign that if corruption is not killed, it would kill Nigeria.

    The Guest Speaker, Prof Abubakar Momoh enjoined President Buhari to take a cue from the Republic of China’s economic policy devoid of IMF and World Bank input.

    He urged the president to toe the line of China on how they grow their economy from zero level to what it is today.

    Momoh said: “President Buhari should emulate China which adopted the policy of economic sovereignty, rather than accepting what the International Monetary Fund told him to do.

    “Without economic sovereignty, the president cannot guarantee regular power supply, employment, good road network and infrastructural development for the citizenry.”

    The Companion Amir (President), Alhaji Musibau Oyefeso urged the president to always send the right signals that he do not condone corruption either in the open or in secret

    The government, Oyefeso said, should also have the courage and the political will to punish crime irrespective of the status of whoever is involved.

    “The rule of law must be uniformly applied to all citizens and institutions. Our criminal laws must also be reformed constantly in line with modern-day realities in order to block loopholes in the existing laws,” he said.

     

  • World Bank begins Implementation Support Mission

    World Bank begins Implementation Support Mission

    World Bank has begun the Seventh Implementation Support Mission for West Africa Agriculture Productivity Project (WAAPP) to assess the success of WAAPP activities in some selected states and areas for subsequent collaboration.

    The mission, conducted between May 4 and  15, this year reviewed progress of restructuring of the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) and also assessed operational status of the dry mango projects and progress of implementation of action plans developed during the implementation mission of November, last year.

    Its Agricultural Economist and Co-Task team Leader, Dr. Sheu Salau, who is on one of the teams, said the dry mango technology at the Longa-Ewa Lakes, Sabo Wuse, Niger State, is a regional project adopted from Burkina Faso which is one of the aims of WAAPP of exchanging technology within the West African sub-region aimed at reducing poverty and ensuring growth.

    At the Longa-Ewa Lakes, some few kilometres off Sabon Wuse, along the Abuja-Kaduna highway, the dry mango project was commissioned by Dr. Sheu Salau.

    The proprietor of the project, Alhaji Njidda Ahmed, said one of its objectives  is to reduce post-harvest losses of mango, guava and oranges.

    He said the dry mango technology is a process whereby the Tommy mango that is grown on the farm is collected, peeled and dried through a WAAPP-sourced machine that dries the fruit from 100 per cent  moisture to 12 per cent  before it is packaged in 5kg polythene bags.

    At the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Kubwa, Abuja, WAAPP assessed the production of breeder, foundation and certified seeds of improved cassava varieties, production and dissemination of breeder and production of high quality seed yams.

    The mission also visited the National Cereals Research Institute, Badeggi, Niger State Agricultural and Mechanisation Development Authority (NAMDA), Minna, Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO), Federal University of Agriculture, and Fish Shoal, both in Abeokuta.

    The team’s first stop in Niger State was in Ndagbachi village where a biogas digester that produces cooking gas from cow dung mixed with water was commissioned. Dr. Salau, who addressed the community, urged them to maintain the project.

    The National Project Coordinator, WAAPP Nigeria, Prof. Damian O. Chikwendu, said WAAPP aims at increasing agricultural productivity through improved crop varieties and improved fingerlings noting that these will enhance household productivity.

    He said the aim of the biogas project is to teach the community the dangers of cutting trees for firewood and provide them with alternative, adding that WAAPP will continue to monitor the project in order to see how it is impacting on the community.

    The biogas digester project was also commissioned at the University of Abuja which was adopted as a village.

    In Badeggi, the Managing Director of Niger State Agricultural and Mechanisation Development Authority, Baba Kutugi Madugu, briefed the team on the community-based seed multiplication activities especially rice with a visit to the rice paddies in the area.

  • World Bank spends N75b on agric in Lagos, others

    World Bank spends N75b on agric in Lagos, others

    THE World Bank has spent about $380 million (about N75, 240,000, 000) on agriculture in Lagos and some  other states in the last eight years, the state Commissioner for Agriculture, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, has said.

    Speaking to reporters yesterday in Alausa, Ikeja, he said the $200 million Fadama grant was accessed by six states while the $180 million was accessed by five states, including Lagos.

    Lawal said $180 million was spent on Commercial Agriculture Development Project (CADP) while $200 million was spent on National Fadama Development Project (FADAMA).

    He explained that Lagos was  selected among six others to benefit from the $25 million grant from the World Bank through the Federal Government for this year because of the performance recorded.

    The commissioner added that about 3,000 birds were killed during recent onset of bird flu in Lagos State, saying about 2,000 birds were killed in one farm, 500 birds each in two other farms.

    He also said 10 birds were also killed in a zoo on the Lekki axis, affirming that there is currently no incident of bird flu in the state.

    Lawal added that most of the food requirement of the state is currently being met  through food importation from other state.

    “At the end of 2014, our internal production has been 10 per cent which is an increase of seven per cent from three per cent  in Pre-2007,” he said adding that the target of Lagos is to hit 25 per cent by 2018.

    According to him, the asset base of cooperative societies in Lagos state is now N60 billion and that there are about 6, 500 cooperative societies in Lagos out of which only 2, 700  have been revalidated and confirmed active