World Bank disburses $13.63bn loans, grants to Nigeria

World Bank

The World Bank has disbursed a total of $13.63bn in loans and grants to Nigeria as of March 31; a summary of the country’s debt portfolio provided by the bank has shown.

The disbursement is out of a total of $21.44bn that had been approved by the bank’s Board of Directors. The total approval is made up of International Development Association credit of $11.65bn and International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s loan of $7.14bn.

The IDA is the World Bank Group’s window for concessional lending to less developed countries, while the IBRD is the window for lending at commercial rates.

As of March 31, 2007, the total approval for Nigeria stood at $9.55bn; total disbursement stood at $6.98bn; undisbursed loans were $1.56bn; while borrowers’ obligation stood at $2.14bn.

The latest loan for the country was the $490m IDA credit approved in the first quarter of this year.

With the $13.63bn disbursement, the bank also indicated that Nigeria had $5.94bn that had not been disbursed. The bank defined undisbursed credit as the amount of the loan/credit/grant, calculated in United States dollars equivalent on the date of the summary that was still available to be drawn down.

This means that Nigeria has a total of $5.94bn already approved by the World Bank that is waiting to be drawn down. Some conditions are usually fulfilled before the bank allows a drawdown on already approved loans. Such conditions usually include milestones reached with already approved and drawn down facilities.

With a total of $6.16bn of the total loans already repaid by the country, the World Bank put Nigeria’s current obligation to it at $6.79bn. A total of $16,826,750.56 was repaid to third parties.

The bank defined borrower obligation as the outstanding balance for a loan as of the end of a period in US dollars equivalent. The borrower’s obligation includes the amounts outstanding due to third parties.