FG Begins Disbursement Of N324.6bn W/ Bank Fund By Dec

The federal government will begin the disbursement of the recently announced $750m (about N324,652,500,000 at CBN official rate) World Bank facility to strengthen the Business Enabling Environment in the 36 States of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business/ Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) Secretary, disclosed this at the weekend in Abuja during the screening of the “The Future is Here”, an independence stage play in ease of doing business.

The fund will be disbursed through the State Action for Business Enabling Reforms (SABER) programme and will be disbursed to states that have introduced reforms to improve the ease of doing business.

She said the access to the $750m will begin in December 2022 as a pilot but in January, the programme kicks off in full.

She said ahead of the disbursement, some study had been done on ease of doing businesses across the states. “We also have our ease of doing business national report. We had the inaugural baseline survey last year.

The new survey, which is the second edition, will be out next month. That’s what we will use to do the action plan on states because all the businesses are domiciled in states. That’s why the state government is partnering with us to deliver these results” she said. She also noted that there will be a technical assistance component to the states as the money goes to the state government but is monitored by the FG.

She said the purpose of the play was to educate citizens about reforms in the ease of doing business space.