The World Bank on Tuesday approved fresh loans for Nigeria after a meeting to deliberate on a request for fresh loans from the federal government.

The bank in a statement on Wednesday said the new facilities will finance six projects which seek to improve immunization, enable a stronger business environment for the private sector and expand the digital economy to promote job creation.

The projects are also aimed at increasing public and private sector capacity on governance and social and environmental safeguards.

“Nigeria is central to the World Bank Group’s mission of tackling extreme poverty.

“The World Bank is carefully targeting its support on high impact projects as the country works to tackle corruption and lift 100 million of its people out of poverty,” David Malpass, World Bank Group President, said while announcing the approval of the loans.

The bank’s country director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri, explained that the projects are aimed at delivering better services for Nigerians.

“Ensuring that children are immunized and sleep under mosquito nets, building better roads especially in rural areas, and providing Nigeria’s poorest citizens with a unique identification that will make social safety nets and services more effective,” he said.

A scheme targeted at boosting immunisation and the campaign against Malaria in selected states is to be financed under concessional terms through an International Development Association credit of $650m.

The Nigeria Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project, which is aimed at upgrading rural roads, and improving connectivity and access to local markets and agrobusiness services in 13 states, will be co-financed through an IDA credit of $280m, $230m from the French Development Agency, and $65m from the Federal Government of Nigeria.

The Nigeria Digital Identification for Development Project, aimed at supporting the National Identity Management Commission to increase the number of persons who have a national identification number to about 150 million in the next three years, is to be co-financed through an IDA credit of $115m, $100m from the French Development Agency, and $215m from the European Investment Bank.

Other projects to be financed by the fresh loan include the Ogun State Economic Transformation Project which seeks to catalyze private investment in the state by improving the business environment, strengthening the linkages between agricultural producers, suppliers and service providers, and providing training and apprenticeships for women and farmers.

The project is to be financed through an IDA credit of $250m.

Also, the Innovation Development and Effectiveness in the Acquisition of Skills Project, aimed at strengthening the skills of 50,000 Nigerian students and enhance the capacity of technical teachers, is to be financed through an IDA credit of $200m.

In the same vein, the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement Project, aimed at strengthening capacity in managing procurement, environmental and social standards in the public and private sectors, will be financed through an IDA credit of $80m.