THE Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group has approved a loan of United States (US) $300 million to finance Nigeria’s transport sector and Economic Governance Reform Programme.
The loan is expected to boost the Federal Government’s reforms efforts in the areas of transport sector governance, and public expenditure management.
The government is reforming the road transport sector with the establishment of a Federal Road Authority, National Road Maintenance Fund, Road-Tolling Policy, and Axel Load Control Policy.
In the areas of public financial management reform, the programme involves the adoption of International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), Internal Audit Modernisation Plan, Treasuring Single Account (TSA), Government Integrated Public Financial Management (GIFMIS), and Transparency and Compliance in Procurement and Audit Practices.
Nigeria’s programme, which was endorsed at the bank’s recent meeting in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, forms part of the Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for the period between 2013 and 2017.
The programme will also create fiscal space for increased investment in road infrastructure development.
It is an integral part of a broader set of interventions designed to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda, with emphasis on economic governance and infrastructure development.
The Country Strategy Paper outlines the African Development Bank’s engagement and assistance to Nigeria, focussing on two strategic pillars, namely supporting the development of a sound policy environment, and investing in critical infrastructure to promote the development of the real sector of the economy.
The strategy is aligned with the Federal Government’s long-term development agenda.
Meanwhile, leaders of the African Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group have pledged close collaboration and to support development.
The leaders emphasised the need for coordinated efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, which aims to end poverty and hunger, increase access to education and health care, improve gender equality, and ensure environmental sustainability.
“Nothing could be more important than ensuring young people get the right start in life. We aim to make 2015 the year in which children no longer negotiate access to basic education, mothers to the most basic health care, households to water and sanitation, or girls to the most fundamental opportunities for schooling, work, or voice in their communities. And we aim to ensure these gains are permanently sustained in the post-2015 era,” President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, said.
The leaders pledged strong support for and collaboration with the United Nations-led process of defining the Post-2015 Development Framework.
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