Nigerian Finance Ministry Gets $5.6million World Bank Loan

 

The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has received the sum of $5.6million from the World Bank to procure 21 items, which included office stationery, furniture, solar inverter, office equipment, and vehicles.

The approvals were made under the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability project, which was initiated in 2018, and the money was given to the Home Finance Department of the federal ministry.

The SFTAS project was designed to strengthen transparency and accountability at the sub-national level and ended in 2022.

However, the implementation of the projects is still ongoing according to a document obtained from the bank by PUNCH.

A total of $1.5billion was committed to the project in two batches of $750m (December 2018 and December 2020) by the World Bank.

Although the money is a grant to state governments, it is a loan to the Federal Government. A copy of the procurement plan for the project covering a period from February 2019 to August 2020.

The procurement plan is in line with the World Bank’s Procurement Guidelines which establish the arrangements to be made for procuring the goods and works (including related services) required for a project.

According to the procurement plan for the SFTAS project for the period disclosed by the World Bank, the Home Finance Department received $25,713 to acquire office stationery and supplies.

It also got another $39,357, up from the N33,000 initially requested for additional office equipment and supplies for the SFTAS Programme Coordinating Unit.

For the furniture items, the department got $64,190 for furnishing and equipping SFTAS Public Service Institute space; $14,842 for additional office furniture and partitioning of the STFAS office, as well as $19,368 up from $17,250 for additional office equipment and furniture for the Debt Management Office.

The department also received $24,038 for the procurement of video conferencing equipment for the SFTAS PCU and MiFi modems for the DMO.

However, the biggest approval was for the provision of spatial data to states, which was implemented at the cost of $4.78m.

There was also $409,638 received for the procurement of project vehicles for the PCU and independent verification agent. The ministry also spent the procurement of an Inverter Power Backup System for the SFTAS Programme Coordinating Unit.

Out of the 21 items proposed, two were cancelled, four were successfully completed, and another was under implementation. Also, three were pending implementation, and 11 projects were only signed as of the time the document was released in December 2023.

The World Bank recently disclosed that Nigeria was the top recipient of its fresh loans in 2022, with about $2.9 billion released to the country.