$3bn electricity loan: We are still in discussion with Nigerian Government – World Bank

The World Bank Group has denied approving $3 billion electricity loan to Nigeria, saying that negotiations were still ongoing and would be completed in March next year.

ALSO READ: Nigeria nears getting World Bank’s $3bn power sector loan — Minister

Discussions regarding our support are ongoing and more details will be available when the negotiations are completed by March 2020,” a World Bank spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The World Bank and the Nigerian Government are in discussion for technical and financial assistance to support Nigeria’s power sector reform. The focus is to improve access to electricity for the people of Nigeria.” The Statement read.

NEWSVERGE reports that the Nigerian Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, recently in Washington D.C. said that the Federal Government’s request for a World Bank loan to finance the power sector was at the verge of being granted.

The Minister who was briefing journalist on activities of the Nigerian delegation to the just-concluded annual meetings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings explained that the Nigerian Government had put a request for financing of the power sector at a range of $1.5 billion to $4 billion.

Mrs Zainab Ahmed, also said that the loan would be used to plug funding gaps and tariff differentials, which she said private investors in the sector had always complained about.

She said a portion of the money would go into the transmission segment of the electricity value chain.

If the government is able to expand the facility to four billion dollars, the additional one billion would be used for the distribution segment, according to her.