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Tag: World Bank

  • Poverty reduction: World Bank’s new president to visit sub-Saharan Africa

    World Bank’s new President David Malpass will be making his first foreign trip to sub-Saharan Africa to highlight his vision for the bank’s poverty reduction and development agenda, the bank said on Friday

    A World Bank spokesman said in Washington that Malpass would be traveling this weekend to Madagascar, Ethiopia and Mozambique before flying to Egypt and a debt conference in Paris.

    Malpass was quoted as saying that Africa was a key priority for the bank, due to its high concentration of the world’s poorest people.

    The bank spokesman, who preferred anonymity, said leaders of two of the countries on Malpass’ trip, Ethiopia and Mozambique, were among a number of African leaders also attending this year’s China’s second Belt and Road infrastructure summit.

    Malpass, who was the Treasury’s undersecretary for international affairs, is a longtime critic of China’s Belt and Road lending practices and had worked to raise alarms about them with G7 and G20 countries in that role.

    Malpass said at the IMF and World Bank spring meetings this month that meeting the development lender’s goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 called for a focus on Africa.

    “By 2030, nearly 9 in 10 extremely poor people will be Africans, and half of the world’s poor will be living in fragile and conflict-affected settings,” he told a news conference at the meetings.

    “This calls for urgent action by countries themselves and by the global community.”

    He told reporters on his first day on the job that he wanted to “evolve” the bank’s relationship with China to one where Beijing is a bigger contributor of capital and cooperates more closely with the bank on development issues and poverty reduction.

    Nearly 40 world leaders and scores of finance officials, including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde are gathered in Beijing for the infrastructure summit.

  • Ahmed, Emefiele join other world economic experts at IMF/World Bank meetings

    Ahmed, Emefiele join other world economic experts at IMF/World Bank meetings

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed and the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele, will join other economic experts from around the world to discuss issues affecting global economy in Washington DC, US.

    The discussions are scheduled to hold between April 9 and April 14, under the auspices of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

    The 2019 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank is expected to bring together central bank governors, ministers of finance, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organisations and the academia.

    The experts will discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development and aid effectiveness.

    The meeting will also feature seminars, regional briefings, press conferences and many other events with focus on global economy, international development and the world’s financial system.

    Nigeria attends the meeting each year because of the quantum of investments and technical support it receives from both the IMF and the World Bank.

    Although Nigeria currently has zero loans with the IMF, it enjoys technical support from the organisation.

    The World Bank Group, on the other hand, is helping to fight poverty and improve living standards in the country through 33 Core Knowledge Product Reports and 29 ongoing National and Regional projects.

     

  • Nigeria’s economy ‘falling behind’, ‘slipping’ – World Bank

    Nigeria’s economy ‘falling behind’, ‘slipping’ – World Bank

    The World Bank has classified Nigeria’s economy in the the bottom tercile whose major characteristics include ‘falling behind’ and ‘slipping’.

    The bank said the Nigerian economy exhibited this characteristics since 1995 and this continued till 2018.

    The bank, in its latest report on the regional economy titled, ‘Africa’s Pulse’, released the taxonomy of growth performance in sub-Saharan Africa, which focused on the macroeconomic and financial features that led to growth resilience on the continent.

    According to the bank, the taxonomy is used to help identify the factors that are correlated with success or failure in economic growth performance in sub-Saharan Africa, with emphasis on macroeconomic and financial variables.

    The analysis, it said, involved a series of macroeconomic variables for 44 sub-Saharan African countries from 1995 to 2018.

    The key elements that determined the positions of each of the 44 sub-Saharan economies in the taxonomy, the World Bank said, included the level of income per capita of the countries; structural transformation, as captured by sectoral value-added share and sectoral employment share; and capital flows.

    Others are level and composition of public sector indebtedness, as captured by the general government gross debt and its currency composition, and the outstanding external public debt.

    The last of the indicators has to do with governance vis-a-vis government effectiveness, regulatory quality, control of corruption, voice and accountability, political stability, and absence of violence and rule of law.

    According to the World Bank, the taxonomy compares the average annual GDP growth rates during 1995–2008 and 2015–2018 against predetermined thresholds.

    It also categorised growth performance into five groups: falling behind, slipping, stuck in the middle, improved, and established. The five groups were further reclassified into three groups: Top tercile, middle tercile and bottom tercile.

    The Bretton Wood institution said, “If a country’s economic performance declined from 1995–2008 to 2015–18, the country is categorised in the bottom tercile, which includes ‘falling behind’ and ‘slipping.’ If a country’s growth rate remained invariant over time, between 3.5 and 5.4 per cent in both periods, it is categorised in the middle tercile (or stuck in the middle). If a country’s economic performance improved from 1995–2008 to 2015–18, with the growth of more than 5.4 per cent per year, the country is categorised in the top tercile, which includes the ‘improved’ and ‘established’ groups.”

    Based on the above classification, the Nigerian economy was categorised alongside 18 other sub-Saharan African economies as slipping having recorded declined economic performance between 1995 and 2018.

    The World Bank said, “The bottom tercile consists of 19 countries: Angola, Burundi, Botswana, the Republic of Congo, the Comoros , Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Lesotho, Mauritania, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Eswatini, Chad, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These countries did not show any progress in their economic performance from 1995–2008 to 2015–18. For instance, their median economic growth rate decelerated, from 5.4 per cent per year in 1995–2008 to 1.2 per cent per year in 2015–18.”

    The bottom performing economies, according to the World Bank, produce almost 60 per cent of the region’s total GDP, emphasising that the three largest countries in the region—Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola—and many commodity exporters are in this group.

    Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania made the top tercile.

    The middle tercile countries are Benin, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, the

    Democratic Republic of Congo, Cabo Verde, The Gambia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mauritius, Niger, Sudan, São Tomé and Príncipe, Togo, and Uganda.

    The World Bank also cut its growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa this year to 2.8 per cent from an initial 3.3 per cent.

    The commodity price slump of 2015 cut short a decade of rapid growth for the region, and the bank said growth would take longer to recover as a decline in industrial production and a trade dispute between China and the United States take their toll.

    The bank’s 2019 forecast means economic growth will lag population growth for the fourth year in a row and it will remain stuck below three per cent, which it slipped to in 2015.

    “The slower-than-expected overall growth reflects ongoing global uncertainty, but increasingly comes from domestic macroeconomic instability including poorly managed debt, inflation and deficits,” the bank said.

    The Bretton Wood institution equally cut Nigeria’s growth forecast by 0.1 per cent.

    It said, “Growth in Nigeria is projected to rise from 1.9 per cent in 2018 to 2.1 per cent in 2019 (0.1 percentage point lower than last October’s forecast).

    “This modest expansion reflects stagnant oil production, as regulatory uncertainty limits investment in the oil sector, while non-oil economic activity is held back by high inflation, policy distortions, and infrastructure constraints.

    “Growth is projected to rise slightly to 2.2 per cent in 2020 and reach 2.4 per cent in 2021, as improving financing conditions help boost investment.

    “In Nigeria, although the manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs remained above the neutral 50-point mark—which denotes expansion—they fell further in February, due to weaker rises in output and new sales orders across firms.

    “Household consumption in Nigeria has remained subdued, while multiple exchange rates, foreign exchange restrictions, low private sector credit growth, and infrastructure constraints have continued to weigh on private investment.”

    The Chief Economist for Africa at the bank, Albert Zeufack, said the region could boost annual growth by about nearly two percentage points if it harnessed Information Technology more effectively.

    “This is a game-changer for Africa,” he added.

    However, the spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said the CBN under the current governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, had shown so much ingenuity in managing the economy.

    “You know the crisis that we have faced in the past three years. The bank has shown ingenuity in managing the situation and ensuring that everything is stable.”

     

  • World Bank appoints David Malpass as 13th president

    World Bank appoints David Malpass as 13th president

    The Executive Directors of the World Bank on Friday unanimously selected David Malpass as President of the World Bank Group for a five-year term, beginning on Tuesday, April 9.
    The World Bank in a press release published on its website, said the appointment followed a transparent nomination process where any national of the Bank’s membership could be proposed by any Executive Director or Governor.
    “The Board looks forward to working with Malpass on the implementation of the Forward Look and the Capital Package Agreement as articulated in the Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development Paper,” the bank said.
    The World Bank President is Chair of the Boards of Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).
    The President is also ex-officio Chair of the Boards of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
    Malpass previously served as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs for the U.S.
    As Under Secretary, Malpass represented the United States in international settings, including the G-7 and G-20 Deputy Finance Ministerial, World Bank-IMF Spring and Annual Meetings of the World Bank.
    He also played a role in several major World Bank Group reforms and initiatives.
    He was also instrumental in advancing the Debt Transparency Initiative, adopted by the World Bank and IMF, to increase public disclosure of debt and thereby reducing the frequency and severity of debt crises.
    Prior to becoming Under Secretary, Malpass was an international economist and founder of a macroeconomics research firm based in New York City.
    Earlier in his career, Malpass served as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Developing Nations and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Economic Affairs.
    In these roles, he focused on an array of economic, budget, and foreign policy issues, such as the U.S involvement in multilateral institutions, including the World Bank.
    Malpass had served on the boards of the Council of the Americas, Economic Club of New York, and the National Committee on U.S–China Relations.
    He earned his bachelor’s degree from Colorado College and his MBA from the University of Denver.
    He undertook advanced graduate work in international economics at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

  • Nigeria-born Executive Director of World Bank, Haruna Mohammed is dead

    The World Bank has announced the death of Haruna Mohammed, Executive Director for Nigeria, Angola, and South Africa.

    Mr Ousmane Diagana, World Bank Group’s Vice President, Human Resources, said in a statement that Mohammed passed away on Friday at Georgetown Hospital in Washington, DC.

    “Before being appointed Executive Director in October 2018, Mohammed was serving as the Alternate Executive Director of his constituency. He was on the job from January 2017 till October 2018, when he rejoined the Board.

    “He had previously represented his home country of Nigeria as both an Adviser and Senior Adviser between 2001 and 2006,” Diagana said.

    Mohammed was born in Katsina, and before joining the Board of the World Bank, he had a long and distinguished career in the Federal Ministry of Finance where he started as an Economic Planning Officer in 1983 and rose to the positions of Chief Economist and Director of International Economic Relations.

    In that capacity, he took part in the Washington DC Deputies meeting in Mexico City in 2008, and his participation was instrumental in the creation of a third African Chair at the World Bank Board.

    He was also the co-author of the current Board capacity building programme – the ‘Voice Secondment Program’, which brings officials of developing member countries to work in the World Bank in Washington for six months to acquire skills needed in their work with the Bank.

    Mohammed also represented Nigeria as Alternate Governor of the OPEC Fund for International Development, served as the Director for Nigeria at the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development and Chair of its Audit Committee, and as the Alternate Director for Nigeria at the Africa Export-Import Bank.

    During his time at the Executive Board of the World Bank, he brought focus to issues he considered of utmost priority to his country, to his constituency and to Africa in general.

    These are reduction of poverty, improvement of business environment, addressing fragility, and bolstering resilience of the most vulnerable, Diagana said

    He was a member of the Human Resources and Ethics Committees at the time of his passing, and he quickly positioned himself as an advocate for Bank staff, particularly those in country offices, whom he recognised as the face of the institution in the developing world.

    “Mohammed’s colleagues and staff members warmly remember him as someone who possessed a humble, kind, generous, spiritual and deeply compassionate disposition.

    “This was beautifully balanced by his extensive knowledge of West African perspectives and history, and his thorough understanding of the issues most pressing to African countries.

    “He is survived by his wife, Inno and their children. Our deepest sympathy is extended to them, as well as to Haruna’s extended family and friends,” he said.

    The Nigerian Embassy in Washington, DC, in a statement issued by Mr Mohammed Suleiman, Head of Chancery, announced that late Mohammed was buried at Maryland on Monday.

    Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, in a tribute, described Mohammed as “an effective Executive Director at the Board of the Wolrd Bank”.

  • Kim’s resignation: World Bank commences selection process for new President

    The World Bank on Thursday said it has commenced a process that will lead to the selection of a new president.

    The commencement of the process follows the sudden exit last Monday of the incumbent president, Jim Yong Kim, who announced he would be stepping down from his position effective February 1.

    Kim’s announcement came more than three years ahead of the scheduled end of his tenure in 2022.

    Since the announcement, World Bank’s CEO, Kristalina Georgieva, was announced as the person to assume the role of the interim president effective February 1.

    On Thursday the Bank in a statement said its Board of Executive Directors met on Wednesday, January 9, under the chairmanship of its dean, Merza Hasan, to discuss the selection process for the next President.

    While expressing appreciation to Kim for his leadership of the World Bank Group and the significant accomplishments of the Bank during his tenure, the Executive Directors affirmed the Board’s commitment to an open, merit-based and transparent selection process.

    “The Executive Directors agreed that candidates should be committed to the implementation of the Forward Look and the capital package agreement as articulated in the Sustainable Financing for Sustainable Development Paper,” the statement said.

    The directors spelled out the criteria prospective candidates for the president should meet before selection.

    They include a proven track record of leadership; experience of managing large organizations with international exposure, and a familiarity with the public sector; the ability to articulate a clear vision of the World Bank Group’s development mission; a firm commitment to and appreciation for multilateral cooperation; and effective and diplomatic communication skills, impartiality and objectivity in the performance of the responsibilities of the position.

    The directors also set the deadline for the submission of nominations starting from “February 7 by 9 A.M. Eastern Standard Time (EST) and ending on March 14 by 9 A.M. EST.

    They said the nominations may be made by Executive Directors, or by Governors through their Executive Director, while candidates must be nationals of the Bank’s member countries.

    At the close of the nomination period, the executive directors said they would publish a shortlist of three candidates along with their consent, while formal interviews would be conducted for all the candidates with the expectation of selecting the new President before the Spring Meetings of 2019.

    The President of the World Bank is ex officio chair of the Board of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).

    The President is also ex officio chair of the Board of Directors of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

     

  • BREAKING: World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announces resignation, names successor

    In a surprise move, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Monday announced that he will step down from his position on February 1 much before the end of his term in 2022.


    Kim, 58, has been in this position for over six years now.

    The president of the Washington-based World Bank has always been an American citizen nominated by the United States, which is the largest shareholder of this multilateral financial institution.

    “It has been a great honour to serve as President of this remarkable institution, full of passionate individuals dedicated to the mission of ending extreme poverty in our lifetime,” Kim said.

    Kristalina Georgieva, World Bank CEO, will assume the role of interim President effective February 1.
    “The work of the World Bank Group is more important now than ever as the aspirations of the poor rise all over the world, and problems like climate change, pandemics, famine and refugees continue to grow in both their scale and complexity, Kim was quoted as saying in a World Bank press release.

    “Serving as President and helping position the institution squarely in the middle of all these challenges has been a great privilege,” Kim said.

    During his term as World Bank President beginning July 2012, Kim emphasised that one of the greatest needs in the developing world is infrastructure finance and he pushed the Bank Group to maximize finance for development by working with a new cadre of private sector partners committed to building sustainable, climate-smart infrastructure in developing nations, the release said.

    To that end, Kim announced that, immediately after his departure, he will join a firm and focus on increasing infrastructure investments in developing countries, it said, adding that the details of this new position will be announced shortly.

    Under his leadership, the World Bank established two goals: to end extreme poverty by 2030; and to boost shared prosperity, focusing on the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries. These goals now guide and inform the institution in its daily work around the globe, it said.

    In addition, shareholders strongly supported measures to ensure that the Bank Group be even better positioned to respond to the development needs of clients: The Bank Group’s Fund for the Poorest, IDA, achieved two successive, record replenishments, which enabled the institution to increase its work in areas suffering from fragility, conflict, and violence.

    In April 2018, the Bank Group’s Governors overwhelmingly approved a historic USD 13 billion capital increase for IBRD and IFC that will allow the Bank Group to support countries in reaching their development goals while responding to crises such as climate change, pandemics, fragility, and underinvestment in human capital around the world.

    “Over the past 6+ years, the institutions of the World Bank Group have provided financing at levels never seen outside of a financial crisis, the bank said.

    Recognising the power of capital markets to transform development finance, the Bank Group during Kim’s tenure also launched several new innovative financial instruments, including facilities to address infrastructure needs, prevent pandemics, and help the millions of people forcibly displaced from their homes by climate shocks, conflict, and violence.

    The Bank is also working with the United Nations and leading technology companies to implement the Famine Action Mechanism, to detect warning signs earlier and prevent famines before they begin.

  • 36 states, FCT to access World Bank’s $750m loan, grant soon – FG

    The Federal Government has disclosed that 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, will soon access World Bank’s $750 million loan and grant facility.

    This was made known by the Minister of Finance, Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, while addressing the 7th Community of Practice (CoP) made up of State Commissioners of Planning and Budgeting, in Abuja, with theme, ‘Achieving Realism in State and Federal Budgets for Effective Service Delivery’, as contained in a statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance on Media and Communications, Paul Ella Abechi.

    Ahmed, who was the founder of CoP in September 2016, as then Minister of State for Budget and National Planning was invited to speak on issues concerning the CoP, where she expressed optimism that states will continue with their fiscal responsibility which will serve as platform to access the loan and grant from the World Bank.

    The Community of Practice meetings enhance the State Commissioners of Planning and Budget’s capabilities in performing their functions, and serve as platforms for facilitating peer learning and information exchange, strengthening coordination, collaboration and networking.

    Issues being discussed at the 7th CoP meeting include expanding the forum beyond the current membership to include the Minister of Finance and Commissioners of Finance from States for better coordination of planning, budget and public finances.

    She said: “During the course of these meetings we had the benefit of hosting the World Bank and several other opportunities including the Governors’ Forum. During the course of this exercise, the Ministry of Finance had to on instruction from the President provide bailouts to the state because at one point states were not able to pay salaries.

    “Part of the conditions that was given for those bailouts is a fiscal responsibility plan which needed to be implemented for the state to continue to be qualified to access the funds that the Federal Government was giving.

    “This FSP was quite successful because as a result of that we saw improvements in the public financial management in a lot of states, some of which is evident in the increase in the IGR and also the increase in the frequency of the preparation of financial statement in the availability of budget that used to never been found anywhere.

    “This year, it was so good that the World Bank said this group has done well and therefore we are going to give $750million in the form of concession loans and grant which will be available soon for the states to access.

    “We are in the process of going to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to get the approval; the World Bank on its own has already approved this and others. So we hope that you will continue to implement your fiscal responsibility so that you will qualify for this facility as well as the grant.

    “And those principles agreed by NEC are still as relevant today as they were in 2016. So I want to urge the CoP to ensure that the monitoring aspect of this is still continuing in one way or the other.”

    She also charged the CoP to make monitoring of the process of implementation of budget as cardinal, because it would benefit and enhance what they are doing to improve the standard of living of the people in their states.

    “Let me add that the need for monitoring is beneficial because it will enhance process improvement, it will also help us to refocus ourselves as well as our principles to stay on those commitments that are made, but most importantly it will enhance public service delivery to the citizens”, she stated.

  • World Bank projects ‘below 2 per cent GDP growth’ for Nigeria in 2018

    The World Bank in its latest report released on Wednesday has projected a slow growth in Nigeria’s economy in 2018.

    According to the report on Nigeria’s bi-annual Economic Update on Wednesday, the country’s Gross Domestic Product growth is expected to hover slightly below two per cent in 2018, largely driven by non-oil industry and services.

    In the report, it also stated that Nigeria’s investment in human capital compared to other nations remained very low.

    Titled ‘Investing in Human Capital for Nigeria’s Future’, the report noted that, Nigeria, like many other countries, had underinvested in human capital, which was quite low compared to other countries, though it did not provide any statistics.

    In recognition that bold actions are required to address years of underinvestment in human capital, the government of Nigeria has established a Human Capital Working Group to develop a unified vision for human capital development and drive implementation of interventions within the ‘Investing in our People’ pillar of the Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, the bank said.

    The statement quoted World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Rachid Benmessaoud, to have said, “The World Bank welcomed the Government of Nigeria’s recent ‘Call for Action’, requesting all stakeholders to join the Government’s effort to address Nigeria’s alarming human capital outcomes.

    “As a member of the Human Capital Working Group, the World Bank stands ready to support the Government of Nigeria in its bold steps to improve the lives of its citizens.”

    The bank said that Nigeria’s emergence from recession remained sluggish, adding that sectoral growth patterns were unstable.

    “In the second quarter of 2018, the oil sector contracted by four per cent, the usually-resilient agricultural growth slowed significantly to 1.2 per cent, impacted by the security challenges in the Northeast and Middle Belt regions,” the World Bank said.

    “The non-oil industry and services, which constitute over half of Nigeria’s economy, picked-up to 3.1 per cent and 2.1 per cent respectively, driven by growth in construction, transport, and ICT.”

    The Update reported that the Nigerian economy remained dependent on the small oil sector (under 10 per cent of GDP) for the bulk of its fiscal revenues and foreign exchange earnings.

    The statement said, “Although oil revenues are increasing with recovering oil prices in 2018, distributions from oil revenues to the three tiers of government are constrained by the petrol subsidy and other prior deductions.

    “In the first half of 2018, the current account surplus surpassed four per cent of GDP, driven largely by higher oil exports, while non-oil revenue collections have come in lower than envisaged.

    “Despite sustained efforts to improve the business environment, Foreign Direct Investment inflows remain stagnated.”

    According to the Update, the fiscal deficit will likely widen in 2018 due to increased spending and sustained revenue shortfalls.

    It added that the current account balance was expected to remain positive, benefitting from the rising value of oil exports and limited growth of non-oil imports.

    The capital account faces significant uncertainty, as external portfolio investors may exercise further caution, especially during the pre-election period, despite rising domestic yields, it added.

    Given the clearly challenging economic backdrop, the Update suggested certain key policy reforms would be important to support macroeconomic resilience for Nigeria.

    These include, among others, the acceleration of the economic diversification agenda, the reform of petrol subsidy regime to improve the fiscal space, improvements in the domestic revenue (particularly non-oil) to reduce volatilities in government revenues and increased investment in human capital for a truly sustainable growth.

     

  • Bayelsa obtains $1mn World Bank/EU loan

    The Bayelsa State Government on Wednesday commenced the deployment of one million dollars bilateral loan it obtained from the World Bank and European Union (EU).

    Projects selected for implementation from the loan are scheduled to be completed in two years.

    Figures from Debt Management Office put Bayelsa’s external debt as at June 20018 at 47.756 million dollars, while the domestic debt stood at N123 billion.

    The World Bank and EU facility would be administered under the State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR) Project to provide 6,000 jobs for youth empowerment.

    Mr Parminder Brar, the World Bank Task Team Leader (TTL) for the SEEFOR in Nigeria, disclosed this in his remarks at the opening ceremony of the SEEFOR Project Implementation Support Mission (ISM) in Yenagoa.

    He said that during the first 12 months of the two years, 40 new projects would be started and crafts, technical and vocational training centres in the state would receive support under the SEEFOR project.

    Brar also said the overall allocation for the SEEFOR project was 480 million dollars of which 65 per cent was from the World Bank and 35 per cent from the EU, adding that the allocation for Bayelsa was 55 million dollars.

    Delivering a keynote speech at the event, Retired Rear Adm. Gboribiogha Jonah, the Bayelsa Deputy Governor, decried Nigeria’s slow approach to tackling its development challenges.

    Gboribiogha said that the approach was especially slow in terms of improving life expectancy, literacy rate, access to water and roads, among others, when compared to its neighbours.

    He said that some state governments focused on developing the urban areas while the rural areas received little or no attention, noting Bayelsa had keyed into the SEEFOR project to change the narrative in the rural areas.

    Jonah commended the SEEFOR project for not only providing more than 10,000 jobs for the teeming youths in the state in the previous phases, but also for constructing roads for farmers to evacuate their farm produce.

    He emphasised that the successful execution of SEEFOR projects would attract more projects to the state.

    Jonah also said that the greatest challenge facing Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country was lack of access to funds that would attract minimal interest, enough time to execute projects as well as pay back loans.

    The deputy governor, who called on the participating states of Edo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa to have equal SEEFOR assessment, participation and benefit, enjoined them to take the peer-review sessions seriously, especially in the area of public financial management.

    Joshua Ongore, the state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, said that the objectives of the SEEFOR project were in line with the development agenda of Gov. Seriake Dickson-led administration.

    He said that the Bayelsa Government prioritised youth empowerment through training, entrepreneurship and employment.

    He described the scheme as an innovation that would open opportunity for peer-learning across the states, stressing that the SEEFOR project was active and responding to the challenges of innovative and better ways of doing things.