Nigeria is discussing as much as $1.5 billion of World Bank funding to help ease a severe dollar shortage that has contributed to the naira’s steep decline.
“We’re hoping to get $1 billion or $1.5 billion from the World Bank” for budgetary support, Finance Minister Wale Edun said Wednesday in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua.
“It is a matter of discussion at the moment, but we think we will get the support because we are continuing with our reforms.”
Since taking office in May, President Bola Tinubu has scrapped Nigeria’s costly fuel subsidies and relaxed its exchange-rate policy.
The reforms have been welcomed by international investors, but caused a surge in the cost of living, with inflation hitting a 27-year high of 28.9% last month and the naira slumping about 50% in value against the dollar.
“What we’ve done with fuel subsidies, what we have done in terms of the foreign-exchange market reform, deserve support,” he said. “We’ve done enough and we deserve to be rewarded imminently.”
Oil-rich Nigeria is also confident of having access to the eurobond market and may look to tap it later this year, if rates move sufficiently lower.
“The major issuers and the book runners have told us that there should be a window for Nigeria in the eurobond market,” Edun said.
Follow the MoneyCentral Nigeria channel on WhatsApp: Click here!
