Barbara Bako, Abuja.
The World Bank has told the federal government to continue with its current economic reforms.
According to the World Bank, “We need to stick to the plan and keep moving forward. Turning back or opposing the reforms will only make things worse.
Country Director of the World Bank, Dr. Ndiame Diop offered this guidance during the presentation of the Nigeria Development Update (NDU) in Abuja on Thursday.
“We are seeing, like in all fiscal positions driven by high revenues, a reduction in borrowing from ways and means, and a stronger external position used by the foreign reserve.
“The reforms that are started in May 2023 have clearly helped prevent the fiscal crisis and they are stabilizing the Nigerian economy. To give you some perspective, debt service to revenue ratio was about 100% in 2022, and we predicted this before, way below 60% this year.”
“And the FX turnover nearly doubled in Nigeria’s official FX market this year. But on the flip side, we know that many Nigerians are struggling with high inflation and rising cost of living. So progress is real, but so are the struggles of many citizens, which the team actually will elaborate on later,” he added.
Staying the course he said, is essential for securing a better future for all Nigerians but the effort must be accompanied by reforms enabling the private sector to create more embedded jobs with targeted support to youth and the old.
Dr. Diop says that in order to maintain Nigeria’s progress and build on its early victories, the World Bank is eager to learn about the government’s action plan.
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He emphasised that the size of the opportunities and challenges calls for close cooperation between the public and private sectors, development partners, and the Nigerian people.
Dr. Alex Sienaert, Chief Economist, Nigeria, lamented that the saying that World Bank is not the most popular institution in Nigeria these days has always been worisome .
He said, “The widespread belief that foreign interests are keeping Nigeria down is not correct. The World Bank team, including me, think that the president’s signature reforms are trying to end this crisis. It’s very difficult. It’s not going to be possible overnight. But there’s a chance.”
“If that chance could crystallize, it would put Nigeria on a new direction and transform this country. And that would transform Africa and contribute to the whole world. Nigeria and Africa would be where they should be, which is defining the global frontier.”
“So it’s staying the course, and that perspective that we currently have is informed by our sense, our take, our understanding that Nigeria was on the brink of a full-blown fiscal crisis last year,” he added.
