The World Bank said it has committed $8.5 billion to Nigeria to fund critical issues ranging from agriculture to education.
World Bank Country Director to Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, disclosed this during a summit organised by the Emergency Coordination Center, held in Abuja.
According to him, the amount was the largest to any country, but added that it was still infinitesimal, compared with the needs of Nigeria.
Chaudhuri said about $2.5 billion to $3 billion of the fund had been channelled 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 said.
The country director further pointed out that the future of Nigeria depended on the ability of the young people to go to school.
He said it was important to make schools safe to ensure that fewer children were out of school and that it was Nigeria’s call to determine how it would mobilise its financial resources to enable young Nigerians go to school or whether its scarce resources would be used to subsidise petrol with over N6.5 trillion.
