The Washington-based World Bank has disbursed Nigeria a $1.5 billion foreign loan as part of the federal government’s effort to implement fuel subsidy removal and tax reforms.
This is according to the World Bank’s recent document on the loan’s progress.
The document showed that the loan was approved on June 13, 2024, with the first tranche of $750m disbursed on July 2, 2024, while the latest disbursement was done in November.
Accordingly, the second tranche disbursement was tied to the fulfilment of specific economic reform conditions and was disbursed in November 2024.
Consequently, this brought the total disbursement from the World Bank to Nigeria to about $1.88 million, representing less than one percent of the total approved $750 million for the ARMOUR project.
Further details indicated that the $1.5 billion loan disbursed to Nigeria was structured in two tranches with different maturity periods.
The first tranche was a $750 million credit from the International Development Association, featuring a 12-year maturity and a six-year grace period.
The second tranche, a $750 million loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has a 24-year repayment period with an 11-year grace period.
According to the World Bank, Nigeria surpassed conditions for the loan approval with the implementation of sweeping reforms such as subsidy removal, exchange rate harmonisation, and tax policies.
