World Bank Working With Nigeria To Increase Revenue Generation

The World Bank is currently working with Nigeria to increase the country’s revenue-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio, which is currently put at six per cent.

The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Mr. Rachid Benmessaoud, said this at the First Ideas for Action Africa held at the African University of Science and Technology in Abuja on Tuesday.

Benmessaoud stated that the country’s revenue generation was low, adding that the bank was working with the country to reverse the trend.

The World Bank boss said it was a moral responsibility on the part of everyone to do more to help people lift themselves out of both fragility and extreme poverty, and to help stabilise the countries they live in, and to give them hope for the future.

He stated, “In October 2017, the World Bank Group launched a global Human Capital Project – an effort to assess the progress countries have made in building human capital and help countries invest more, and more effectively, in their people. The success of the society is linked to the well-being of each and every citizen.

“Reducing the number of out-of-school children, ensuring quality and affordable health care for all, ensuring that every voice is heard regardless of gender, providing employment and growth opportunities for the youth, tackling malnutrition in children and ensuring adequate social protection measures, which meaningfully protect the poor and vulnerable, are in place.”

He added, “We are living in a time of multiple overlapping challenges: epidemics, climate change, human displacement resulting from fragile, violence and conflict situations, threats of famine and increased vulnerability to natural disasters.”