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As the curtains were drawn on the 2016 annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank, in Washington DC, United States of America on Sunday, the Minister of Finance, who is also the leader of the Nigerian delegation to the meeting, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, has said that the Nigerian team was leaving the meeting with very clear action points for improving the performance of Nigeria’s existing portfolios with the nation’s development partners, in addition to pursuing further areas for greater co-operation and maximising available funding sources to help Nigeria achieve its economic priorities.
Addressing Nigerian journalists at a joint press conference with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the Minister explained that the Nigerian delegation was able to interface with leaders of the World Bank Group and the IMF, and also had bilateral meetings with other institutions including the US Treasury and UK Department for International Development (DFID), Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
The Minister disclosed that following discussions with the World Bank Group Country Team on Nigeria, the delegation reached an agreement on a framework to improve the unacceptably low rate of performance and disbursements of Nigeria portfolios, which currently stands at 13 percent.
According to her, the measures to be taken include, the review of project origination, design and implementation issues; detailed review of particularly low performing projects; possible restructuring or reallocation of irredeemable project components; strengthening of implementation capacity, including capacity for effective monitoring and evaluation; regular monthly portfolio review meetings with the World Bank Group; as well as regular briefing of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and National Economic Council (NEC) on the performance of Nigeria portfolios.
She, however, explained that this exercise would not be limited to the World Bank but all multilateral and bilateral projects and programs.
According to her, specific commitments were secured on a number of programmes and this included: The $500m Irrigation Project covering the Bakalori; Kano River; and Hadejia Valley irrigation schemes, which had been delayed by the due counterpart funding of $4m. She disclosed that the Ministry of Water Resources has confirmed that the Federal Government has made the counterpart payment as part of the recent releases of funds. This, she said, will enable the immediate take off of the project.
Another takeaway from the meeting, according to her, is the fact that agreement was reached to expedite action for the take-off of the $500m North East social safety net project.
