On Monday, the Federal Executive Council granted approval for the $3.45 billion loan proposal, which will fund five projects.
These include initiatives pertaining to renewable energy, the electricity sector, the teenage girls’ initiative for learning and development, the states’ resource mobilization program, and the empowerment of women.
Wale Edun, the minister of finance and Coordinating minister of the economy, informed State House reporters that the Federal Government (FG) would accept the $3.5 billion “zero-interest” loan, which would be due in 40 years with a 10-year moratorium. This means that payments would start in 2033.
“I presented five memos at the Federal Executive Council today, and the Council graciously approved them,” Edun clarified. They had to do with highly concessional funding provided by the World Bank and its very concessional lending arm, the International Development Association, often at zero interest.
The power and renewable energy sectors were the first to receive financing approval for their initiatives. States received funds for resource mobilization initiatives to support their attempts to create revenue internally.
Adolescent girls’ initiative for empowerment and education has a project. Finally, the Women project received approval for the fifth funding.
The Minister of Finance went on to say that the $700 million girls’ initiative would help young girls who were in secondary school so they could not only excel academically but also develop employable skills.
“$700m is the size of the current project,” Edun stated, giving the project a numerical value.
In altogether, those five loans amounted to $3.45 billion. As you are aware, the terms include a 40-year tenure, a 10-year moratorium, extremely low interest rates, or zero interest in the case of loans, and other terms. But there would be some costs,” he continued.
Furthering his explanation, Minister of Education Tahir Mamman stated that the girls’ initiative, which had its start in seven states, had now spread to eleven.
Girls between the ages of 10 and 20 will be empowered as a result of this project, which began with participation from seven states and will now involve roughly 11 more states.
“This is a significant expansion of the program aimed at empowering our girls, our educators, and the establishment of more schools throughout the nation,” Mamman declared.
He went on to say that the initiatives are consistent with the Tinubu administration’s goal of lowering, “if not completely eliminating,” the proportion of girls and kids who are not in school.
In an effort to raise $5 billion yearly for emergency responses to humanitarian disasters, the Federal Executive Council recently approved the creation of the Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Fund.
This was revealed by Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, who said that funds would be generated from a variety of sources, including the government and contributions from people, the commercial sector, and development partners.
Edu stated that emergency solutions to humanitarian disasters in the nation will be made possible by the fund, which will function as a flexible finance source.
The Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trusts Fund is a versatile financing option that might assist us in obtaining contributions from many industries. The government, the commercial sector, development partners, individuals, philanthropic individuals, and other creative types of crowd-funding and pooling of cash together will all contribute to this. This will enable an emergency response to Nigeria’s humanitarian disaster.
We hear about the crises, the floods, and everything else every other day. As a nation, we must be capable of responding appropriately. Beyond this, we want to be able to take on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s eight-point program, which includes the subject of poverty reduction.
“To what extent are we observing? Our goal with this fund is to raise at least $5 billion annually from all of the sources I’ve just outlined, if not more. With the establishment of this money, we hope to meet with all the important parties—including other ministries—and genuinely work out the complete implementation strategy for Nigeria, the minister said.
In the meantime, a draft policy covering the sector’s operations, rules, regulatory framework, sourcing, and other characteristics was adopted by the Federal Government for the Nigerian solid mineral industry.
In addition, Minister of Solid Minerals Development Mr. Dele Alake stated that the FG is prepared to invest in technology in order to secure mining space in Nigeria while elucidating this to the press.
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Alake stated that technology has made it possible for the government to figure out how illegal foreign miners operate, identifying them as the main national perpetrators of illicit mining activities.
We are introducing a significant amount of technology. We observe the problems associated with a porous border: illicit mining is a widespread occurrence in rural areas. The government has also linked instances of banditry to the labor of illegal miners, particularly foreign miners who provided funding for banditry in the surrounding districts.
“Technology is helping us decipher these, with the idea of pushing away the local populace and stepping in to explore.
He stated, “We are collaborating with the Inspector General of Police, who serves as the National Security Advisor.”
