Adedokun Waliyu 
The World Bank has approved six projects to support Nigeria’s development priorities.
In a statement by the bank on Wednesday said the projects would be focusing on improving immunisation and providing an enabling business environment for private sector.
It said the projects would also capture expansion of the digital economy to promote job creation and increase capacity of public and private sector on governance, social and environmental safeguards.
“These projects are focused on delivering better services to Nigerian citizens. This means ensuring that children are immunised and sleep under mosquito nets.
“They are also aimed at improving rural mobility with better roads, and providing citizens with a unique identification number to be able to better target social safety nets.’’
“The World Bank is also ramping up its support to Nigeria in its efforts to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty.” the bank stated.
The global bank further explained that the approved programme of support in the fiscal year 2020 included Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Services (IMPACT).
According to the bank, the projects will strengthen health systems to deliver effective primary health care and improve immunisation, malaria control, and child and maternal health in selected states.
It added that amongst key results, the project aimed to improve vaccination coverage; the percentage of children under five who sleep under insecticide treated nets from 28 per cent to 41 per cent, and improve the percentage of women who receive post-natal check-ups from 47 per cent to 55 per cent.
It stated that the project was financed under concessional terms through an International Development Association (IDA), with credit of 650 million dollars.
“Nigeria Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project will upgrade rural roads and improve connectivity and access to local markets and agrobusiness services in 13 states.
“In particular, the project will upgrade about 1,600 kilometers of rural roads and improve 65 agro-logistics centers. These interventions are expected to increase by up to 10 per cent the proportion of the population living within two kilometers of an all-season road.
“The project is financed through an IDA credit of 280 million dollars, co-financing of 230million dollars from the French Development Agency and 65million dollars from the Government of Nigeria,’’ the World Bank said in the statement.
