Federal Government yesterday put the total World Bank’s investment lending at $2.6 billion. Speaking while signing a $60 million financing agreement of the World Bank-assisted Kaduna State Rural Access and Mobility Project, on Tuesday in Abuja, Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola said the investments in Nigeria span through various sectors, such as social services, infrastructure, agriculture and economic management.

Explaining the objective of the project, Babalola stated that the project was secured by the Federal Government and lent to Kaduna State with the aim of increasing access and mobility across the project areas of the state.

He said the project consisted of rehabilitation, upgrading and maintenance of 550 kilometres of selected rural roads, as well as construction/rehabilitation of about 132 river crossing structures.
The minister further noted that the credit for the project was secured from the International Development Association (IDA), which is a soft loan window of the World Bank Group. The IDA credit, he insisted, is a highly concessional facility with a repayment period of 40 years. The credit, which has a 10-year moratorium, will attract zero per cent interest rate and a commitment charge of not more that 0.50 per cent per annum, he maintained.

According to him, the loan, which has service charge of 0.75 per cent per annum, is also payable on the amount drawn down.
“Within the context of the seven-point agenda of this administration, the emphasis is on laying a solid foundation for sustainable management of our road infrastructure and to attain the vision of becoming one of the 20 largest economies by the year 2020,” he submitted.
The two agreements that were signed include the Federal Roads Development Project between the Federal Government and World Bank and Rural Access and Mobility Project agreement between Kaduna State Government and World Bank.

In his remarks, the Country Director of World Bank, Mr Onno Ruhl explained that the two credits total $390 million which is an equivalent to over N45 billion saying that the amount of the credit will support the Federal Government in the introduction of long-term performance based contracts under the Federal Roads Development Project while $60 million will support government’s efforts to address rural transport infrastructure needs.
Ruhl, however, promised to scale up the project to other parts of the country if the Kaduna project is successful.