THE Federal Government in its bid to meet its transformation agenda
and fix the polluted land in the Niger Delta and other parts of the
country is negotiating a $550million financing, Coordinating Minister of
the Nigerian Economy and Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has
said.
The minster, who dropped this hint in an interactive session with
newsmen in Washington DC at the World Bank/International Monetary Fund
(IMF), said the response of the multi-lateral institution to Nigeria
request has been quite encouraging and the deal will be finalised when
the new World Bank country director arrives in Nigeria.
Okonjo-Iweala said: “We have an ambitious programme to create jobs.
One of the several priorities is agriculture. We have very detailed plan
for investment in agricultural sector. One of the things we did here in
Washington was to start negotiating for extra financing from the World
Bank. We are in discussion with them to see if they can advance about
$500 million to support the sector, also environment because we see
agriculture and environmental issues desirous of having support.
“We have also entered into discussion of $50million to support the
environment and $500 million for agriculture. It is not concluded yet
but it is looking positive and we are very happy with what is happening.
We will conclude it when we get to Nigeria and the new country director
arrives”.
Source
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