The World Bank on Tuesday in Abuja pledged to partner with the Federal Government to address Nigeria’s power challenges.
The World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Mr Marktar Diop, made the pledge while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa.
He said already, the bank had inaugurated a task force to specifically support Nigeria’s power reform programme.
“We spoke about the power sector which obviously has been in the mind of everybody in Nigeria. We have decided at the World Bank to put a task force, which will include our private sector branch, our guaranteed branch at the World Bank to support the reform.
“I think the reform is making (really) progress. I was today with main players of the power sector and they were all very happy with the reform and we are discussing about benchmark and timeline to really make sure that this reform is implemented timely and be able to make the issue of outage in Nigeria a history in the nearest future.”
He noted with delight the slight reduction in poverty level in Nigeria from 48 per cent to 46 per cent, saying that the bank would continue to partner with Nigeria to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction in the country.
Diop commended President Goodluck Jonathan over what he described as “good micro-economic management”, which he said, had resulted in appreciable growth rates in the country.
He said that the bank would continue to collaborate with Nigeria to promote regional economic and political stability to facilitate speedy socio-economic development.
The World Bank’s Vice President for Africa, Mr Marktar Diop, made the pledge while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the Presidential Villa.
He said already, the bank had inaugurated a task force to specifically support Nigeria’s power reform programme.
“We spoke about the power sector which obviously has been in the mind of everybody in Nigeria. We have decided at the World Bank to put a task force, which will include our private sector branch, our guaranteed branch at the World Bank to support the reform.
“I think the reform is making (really) progress. I was today with main players of the power sector and they were all very happy with the reform and we are discussing about benchmark and timeline to really make sure that this reform is implemented timely and be able to make the issue of outage in Nigeria a history in the nearest future.”
He noted with delight the slight reduction in poverty level in Nigeria from 48 per cent to 46 per cent, saying that the bank would continue to partner with Nigeria to accelerate the pace of poverty reduction in the country.
Diop commended President Goodluck Jonathan over what he described as “good micro-economic management”, which he said, had resulted in appreciable growth rates in the country.
He said that the bank would continue to collaborate with Nigeria to promote regional economic and political stability to facilitate speedy socio-economic development.
