World Bank spent $300m on community projects in Nigeria

The World Bank says it has spent $300 million out of the $415 million earmarked to support Community and Social Development Projects (CSDP) across 30 states of the federation and the FCT.

Prof. Foluso Okunmadewa, CSDP Task Team Leader of the World Bank, disclosed this yesterday in Abuja at a summit for members of Community and Social Development Agencies’ Board of Directors from the North -east and South-west.

The summit was organized by the Federal Project Support Unit (FPSU) in collaboration with the World Bank.

He said, the “World Bank has spent close to $300 million as at today (yesterday). The totality of the project is $415 million for all the participating states. And there are over $100 million left to be expended on the projects within the next two years because it will close in June 2020.”

He assured that the continue supporting bank would community development projects because of their the huge impact on the lives of the rural populace.

“The project, as you know, supports communities and vulnerable groups. It puts resources into their hands to tackle their own challenges in the areas of basic services that will improve their lives.

“It is a project that actually helps people to achieve all their self-help goals in the areas of health, education, water, education, rural access, skill acquisition for their young ones,” he added.

He said CSDP had been supportive to rebuilding communities devastated by the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east.

The project’s National Coordinator, Dr Abdulkarim Obaje, said with N14 billion, over 4,000 community development projects were ongoing, while some had been completed.

He said since inception of CSDP, over 12,000 micro projects have been implemented in the area of water, rural electrification, health services, education, and spread across all the 30 participating states and the FCT.