TheCable

World Bank Group says it has an investment portfolio of about $8.5 billion scattered across states and regions in Nigeria.

Olufunke Olufon, senior communications officer, World Bank Nigeria, said this in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.

She said the investments were to assist the 36 states of the federation and the federal capital territory (FCT) to reduce poverty and foster prosperity.

She noted that the explanation followed concerns raised by Nigerians over the comment by World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim that President Muhammadu Buhari asked the bank to shift its intervention focus to north-eastern states.

She said the bank was also working with federal and state governments, as well as development partners on speedy delivery of critical interventions to people of the north-east which urgently needs assistance.

“In 2015, the government of Nigeria requested World Bank support to respond to the humanitarian and development crisis in the north-east of Nigeria,” the statement read.

“To assess the needs of the nearly 15 million people in the region impacted by the crisis, the World Bank Group, the UN and the European Union carried out a Recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA).

“And based on the findings of the assessment, World Bank’s 775 million dollars support to the north-east focuses on restoring basic education, health services, agricultural production, and livelihood improvement opportunities.”

Olufon added that the World Bank Group was doubling its resources to address fragility, conflict and violence at the subnational and national levels and help to stabilise places that were affected by high poverty and influx of people.