The World Bank Group has approved a loan of $500m to help improve the livelihood of women in Nigeria.
This would be the second loan approved by the World Bank under President Bola Tinubu.
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The World Bank Group recently approved a loan of $750m to boost Nigeria’s power sector, the loan with project ID P174622 was approved on June 9, 2023.
Meanwhile the bank noted that the new loan would help scale-up financing for Nigeria for Women programme, which was initially approved on June 27, 2018, with $100m financing.
A statement by the World Bank read in part, “The World Bank has approved $500m for Nigeria for Women Program Scale Up (NFWP-SU). The scale-up financing will further support the government of Nigeria to invest in improving the livelihoods of women in Nigeria.
“The NFWP-SU will help to ensure better economic opportunities for women, which is essential for addressing gender inequality; guaranteeing better education, health, and nutrition outcomes for families; and building women’s and communities’ resilience to climate change.”
The Bank further explained that it is expedient for the government to address issues that inhibit women’s economic empowerment and hinder inclusive, low-carbon, and resilient economic growth.
It noted that women’s empowerment is essential to their ability to build resilience to climate change and, by extension, the resilience of their households and communities.
The World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, was quoted as saying: “We have seen promising outcomes from the parent NFWP which has helped to create economic opportunities for thousands of rural women through the Women Affinity Groups”.
Chaudhuri explained that NFWP’s model is helping to improve livelihood opportunities for women and enhancing their capacity to adapt to climate change and to participate in local administrations for policymaking related to community empowerment.
“Closing the gender gap in key economic sectors could yield gains of between $9.3bn and $22.9bn, we are optimistic that this scale-up will help Nigeria to move closer to bridging this gap.” He added.