TheCable

Nigeria has been ranked 152 out of 157 countries in the first-ever Human Capital Index released by the World Bank Group.

Unveiling the report on Thursday at the ongoing annual meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Bali, Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, said educational outcomes from Nigeria are too poor.

“Nigeria, unfortunately, ranks 152 out of 157 countries. We provide quite a bit of support for Nigeria in terms of the health budget. But we feel that the overall spending on health is far too low, 0.76% of GDP. And also the educational outcomes in Nigeria are very poor,” he said.

“Many African countries are in the red zone. I think that the World Bank has to take some responsibility for having emphasized hard infrastructure, roads, rails, energy, for a long time.

“And you know, that changed about 20 years ago. But there has still been the bias that says ‘You know, we’ll invest in hard infrastructure and then when we grow rich, we’ll have enough money to invest in health and education’.

“We’re now saying that that’s really the wrong approach, that you’ve got to start investing in your people right now.”

The World Bank boss urged African leaders to take responsibility for investing more in health and education.

“What’s happened is in many African countries if they don’t receive grant-based financing they simply don’t spend on health and education,” he said.