The World Bank has dedicated $8.5 billion to Nigeria to fund essential points starting from agriculture to education.
Disclosing this on Thursday in Abuja throughout a summit organized by the Emergency Coordination Center, the World Bank Country Director to Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, famous that the quantity was the biggest of any nation.
He noted that it was still infinitesimal compared with the needs of Nigeria, stressing, however, that around $2.5 billion to $3 billion of the fund had been channeled towards education.
“Half of the population of Nigeria itself is less than 17 years old. This means there is a need to invest in human capital development,” he stated.
He opined that the way forward for Nigeria is dependent on the empowerment of the younger individuals.
He further said it was Nigeria’s call to determine how it would mobilize its financial resources to enable young Nigerians to go to school or whether its scarce resources would be used to subsidize petrol with over N6.5 trillion.
According to the ministry of education about 10.1 million children are out of school, however, a subsequent report suggests it is up to 18.5 million.
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Despite this huge gap in knowledge, Africa’s most populous nation is mobilizing N6.7 trillion for petrol subsidies at the expense of training and well-being.
Analysts have described Nigeria’s insistence on subsidies as financial indiscipline, noting that it would have adverse consequences on the Nigerian economy.
For Professor Jonathan Aremu, a former CBN Assistant Director and Senior Lecturer at Covenant University, subsidy distorted the market, making it difficult for products to find their real value.
“In economics, the subsidy is always bad. Yes, quite a lot of people depend on fuel, which is why they have continued to subsidize petrol, but we don’t know how much is really spent on subsidy.”
He stated that the next government should not just remove subsidies, but ensure that they provide incentives that would stop the suffering in Nigeria.
