Nigeria gets extension of World Bank NG-CARE programme

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Nigeria gets extension of World Bank NG-CARE programme

The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Agba on Wednesday in Benin City said the World Bank has granted a one-year extension for the Nigeria Cares (NG-CARE) programme meant to support Micro Small and Medium Scale enterprises to cushion the effects of dreaded COVID-19 pandemic and the World Health Organisation recently declared as over.

He stated this at the Ministerial Town Hall Meeting for beneficiaries of the scheme from Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers States.

Agba said there is also an approval to give cash advancement to the 36 states of the federation since many of them would be getting new governors and the cash crunch occasioned by COVID-19 would affect many of them.

According to him, “The effects of COVID-19 still live with us, and that is where the NG-CARES program is still very apt. So we all recall that the COVID-19 pandemic, which ravaged many economies in the world, had devastating consequences on the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable individuals, formal and informal businesses especially the Micro, Small Enterprises. So it was very, very important that this livelihood should be kept alive, that people are able to keep their jobs at least if not creating new ones

“We gave I billion naira to each state during the Covid with the exception of Lagos that got 10, Kano got a little more and the FCT because those are epicenters of the pandemic, we still have to get the $750 million World Bank loan to support the states in three basic areas.

“We had a flooding problem last year and it did affect our food security and the supply chains for food so we have to approach the World Bank and say let’s extend this project for another year to June 2024 and I am glad that the task team leaders communicated back to me that we now have approval for that and the official letter will come to me next week from the World Bank. I have also sought another approval and that has been approved because I realized that the transition is so near. By May 29th, you are going to have new sets of governors in most parts of the country and for governors to be struggling through limited funding that they have and how to appropriate all of this and considering the fact that we are extending this program by one year, I have also gotten the approval from the bank to do another set of advanced disbursement to the 36 states so the federal government wishes once again to restate its commitment to restoring the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable Nigerians and maintain food security and facilitate the recovery of MSMEs.”

The high point of the event was the testimony of the beneficiaries where they expressed how far the project helped them to recover and build their businesses post covid.