Nigeria and the World Bank

Nigeria is currently the most populated country in Africa and it is also the biggest oil exporter and in addition to this, it has the second biggest economy in Africa. All of these qualities make it a country with great economic potential, but Nigeria also faces great development challenges.[3] It was not until 1999 that a democratic regime finally took over Nigeria under President Olusegun Obasanjo. From there on relations with the World Bank and Nigeria flourished. The World Bank has been working with Nigeria to reduce the high rate of poverty, create better human capital, diversify the country's revenue through non-oil sectors, and help with economic management. Up until 2004, the World Bank was slow to release funds and most projects were relatively going slow and have proved unsatisfactory. Through 2000 to 2007 the World Bank was set on making reforms in macro stability and governance. According to the World Bank evaluations, this was classified as being moderately satisfactory. The other pillars that were focused on were social service delivery, community empowerment, and creating a basis for non-oil growth. These all proved to be moderately unsatisfactory according to the World Bank evaluation.[4] Although change was slow, by 2007 better results started to come from the projects in Nigeria. In 2016, Nigeria ranked as the 12th highest loan recipient from the World Bank with 6.6 billion dollars.[5] As of 2018, the World Bank has a total of 31 projects in 772 locations in Nigeria. This all adds up to $9.21 billion worth of programs in sectors of like social protection, health, agriculture, fishing, forestry, energy, public administration and other areas in need of refinement.[6] By 2018 the World Bank has approved over 225 projects in Nigeria since 1958, most of which happened through IDA credits and IBRD loans.[7]

Despite the risks that are associated with most projects, they are carried out by the World Bank and Nigeria with the intention of making the country's infrastructure better. Some have proven to not be successful, but many others have been successful and changed the lives of Nigeria's inhabitants. The World Bank has made progress in many areas like, urban and rural development, energy production, agriculture, etc...[8] The Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP) is one of the World Bank's successful projects. This project's aim was to build and rebuild roads to ameliorate social conditions and bring business in certain communities. Since 2008, 150 new river crossings and over 464 kilometers of rural road has been built or improved. This resulted in children finally being able to go to school during the rainy seasons. In addition to this, 4.6 million tons of agricultural produce has been transported compared to the previous amount of 3.5 million tons. It also led to a decrease in cost of transportation and an increase in population in the area; which is still increasing up to this date. Through this period, new small and medium business like fishing farms, poultry farms, sawmills, and new markets submerged alongside these roads.[9] Another successful project was the Nigeria National Energy Development Project (NEPD). It started in 2005 and by the closing of this project in 2012, they manage to deliver more efficient energy to 4.4 million consumers in Nigeria. They connected 40 communities and over 24,600 household all over the country with 8,100 meters of grid.[10] The National Fadana Project has been so successful that it was renewed a second and third time with a slightly different focus each time to keep improving farmers situations while staying on the path of Nigeria's Agricultural Transformation agenda. It is a project that has been active since 1993 and is still going on as of 2018. Over time it has turned the act of farming into a profitable business and has groomed farmers to be “Agro-preneurs”. It has also reduced the level of poverty in areas it was established in.[11]

Although there has been progress through recent projects in Nigeria, more needs to be done to bring the country up to speed. In July 2018, The World Bank decided to extend its Country Partnership Strategy with Nigeria until June 30, 2019. In doing so, 7 new projects worth $2.1 billion were approved to start in Nigeria. These projects will be carried out through multiple IDA credits. The main focus of these projects is on key sectors that will lead to economic growth and stability in the upcoming years alongside the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).[12] Through this, the already existing Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) was also funded with $400 million to reduce and work against soil and gully erosion and land degradation in several states across Nigeria. NEWMAP was created by the World Bank and Federal Ministry of Environment after president Goodluck Jonathan asked the World Bank to intervene and help with the erosion in Southeastern Nigeria and land degradation in the North.[13]