The Nigeria Cares (NG-CARE) initiative has received a one-year extension from the World Bank, Prince Clem Agba, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, stated on Wednesday.
In order to mitigate the consequences of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the fortunes of micro, small, and medium businesses, the NG-CARES initiative was established by the World Bank.
Just last week, the World Health Organisation (WHO) pronounced the coronavirus pandemic over.
Agba claimed that there was approval to provide cash advances to the 36 states of the federation because many of them would be getting new governors and the COVID-19 cash crunch would affect many of them. This was said at the Beni edition of the Ministerial Town Hall Meeting for beneficiaries of the scheme from Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, and Rivers States.
During the pandemic, Nigeria was forced to sell its crude oil at a price of $12 per barrel, the state minister said, adding that even though the WHO declared the pandemic to be over, “the effects are still with us.” The pandemic slowed down people’s economic activities and depleted resources by about 52%.
Agba stated that in order to lessen the consequences, the Federal Government developed sustainable action plans to keep the populace alive, adding that one of these strategies included shutting down the economy to stop the epidemic from spreading.
“The impacts of COVID-19 still live with us,” he asserted, “and that is where the NG-CARES programme is still quite appropriate. We all remember the COVID-19 pandemic’s terrible effects on the livelihoods of the poor and vulnerable, formal and informal companies, particularly micro and small businesses, and many economies around the world. So, it was crucial that this source of income be preserved and that people be able to maintain their jobs, if not find new ones.
“We gave NI billion to each state during the COVID, with the exception of Lagos, which got 10, Kano, which got a little more, and the FCT, because those are the 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 realised 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 the 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 disbursements to the 36 states, so the federal government wishes once again to restate its commitment to restoring the livelihoods of poor and vulnerable Nigerians, maintaining food security, and facilitating the recovery of MSMEs,” Agba disclosed.
The recipients’ testimonies, in which they discussed how much the project had aided their post-COVID-19 recovery and economic growth, were the event’s high point.