At a time of acute revenue shortfalls, declining oil output and price, Nigeria’s dominant cash cow over the past five years to finance public spending, Nigeria’s Federal Government is in talks for yet another $2.5bn loan from the World Bank.
Bloomberg quoted the World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Hafez Ghanem, as disclosing this on Wednesday, discussions are ongoing for the concessionary loan.
Expectedly, the news has received wide criticism from Nigerians on Twitter, with many wondering why the current government is insistent on plunging Nigeria into further debt, even after it double outstanding debts from N12tr to N24tr in the past four years.
This, he explained, is in addition to $2.4bn Nigeria already received from the bank last year, adding that “we’re talking about a new set of programmes of about the same amount; it should be about $2.5bn.
Writing through d@NigeriaNumeric, Nigeria Numeric, a data mining and analysis social company, noted that “767.3bn: The worth of loan that Nigeria has approached World bank with the intention to borrow and this is in addition to the $2.4bn previously borrowed from them.”
“Yet they have deliberately imposed absurd fines on deposits and withdrawals from the bank accounts of citizens,” wrote anioke Collins. C via @Canicols.
Mideno Bayagbon, a former editor of Vanguard Newspaper, now publisher of Thenewsguru.com, an online newspaper, writing through @MidenoBayagbon, noted that we are “speedily borrowing ourselves into debt peonage again.”
Reno Omokri, an aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan and well-known critic of the Muhammadu Buhari government, would rather write a letter: “Dear Nigerians, General @MBuhari already more than doubled Nigeria’s debt from the ₦12 trillion he met to ₦24 trillion today. Now he wants to take more loans. How old is Buhari? Almost 80. It is you and your kids who will repay it back!”
Reacting also, Raymond @IamTheIroko, noted rather sadly: “We keep borrowing but won’t reduce the cost of governance.”
@Douglasonyemah wants @WorldBank to “Stop giving Nigeria loans!”
Nathaniel chidozie m @cmaduka3 could only ask rhetorically: “What are these borrowing for Biko nu?
@Afooo_afooo, John D. Afolarin, noted: “Dear @WorldBank, we don’t need the loan. Nigeria is a very rich country, our politicians are riding expensive SUVs. As a country, we have enough to go round but a few are sitting on it. You can give the loan to other countries that are serious. Thanks for your cooperation.”
Sir Johnlouis Ugwuegbu, writing from @SirUgwuegbu noted, “From China to World Bank. Nigeria will get a sense by force. #Nigeria another bombshell.”
As if answering some of the questions, the World Bank was quoted as noting the need “to resolve the problems of the power sector in Nigeria to bring in more investments because you need to bring down the cost of power to make the economy more competitive for the development of industries.
“Nigeria has a comparative advantage in that area because of the youth, a majority of the population is young. So if we want to create jobs, we need to invest much more in the digital economy.”
Ghanem said the World Bank would support Nigeria’s digital transformation because of its potential ability to transform other areas of the economy including industry, agriculture, and services, according to Bloomberg.