The Home Finance Department of Nigeria’s Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning has secured a $5.6 million loan from the World Bank to acquire various items, including office stationery, furniture, solar inverters, office equipment, and vehicles.
The funding is part of the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability, and Sustainability (SFTAS) project initiated in 2018. The project aims to enhance transparency and accountability at the sub-national level. The recent disbursement is for the procurement of essential items to support the project’s implementation, with funds allocated to various departments and activities.
The procurement plan, aligned with the World Bank‘s guidelines, covers the period from February 2019 to August 2020. It includes provisions for office stationery, additional office equipment, furniture for the SFTAS Public Service Institute, video conferencing equipment, spatial data provision to states, and project vehicles for the Programme Coordinating Unit (PCU) and independent verification agent. The largest allocation, $4.78 million, is for the provision of spatial data to states.
While the SFTAS project officially ended in 2022, ongoing implementation and procurement activities continued. The World Bank had committed a total of $1.5 billion to the project in two tranches of $750 million each (December 2018 and December 2020). Although the funds are provided as grants to state governments, they are treated as loans to the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The recent loan disbursement is part of the broader financial landscape, where Nigeria is the top recipient of World Bank loans in 2022, receiving approximately $2.9 billion. The country is currently servicing around $14.12 billion from 108 approved loans, with the oldest loan dating back to 1989 and the most recent approved in 2018.
The ministry explained that the procurement of items is a standard procedure at the commencement of a project, ensuring the necessary resources for successful implementation. The items acquired will support the SFTAS project’s objectives, and the loan covers various aspects of the project’s operational requirements, from office infrastructure to technical assistance for states involved in the initiative.