Buhari meets World Bank delegation to discuss economic crisis

Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, held talks with the World’s Bank Managing Director, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, on Wednesday.

The talks were to discuss how the international lender could help Nigeria overcome its economic crisis mainly caused by a sharp fall in crude prices that has diminished the countries oil revenues.

World Bank & Nigeria's president discuss country's economic crisis https://t.co/Bm4tKYY2VP

— CNBC Africa (@cnbcafrica) April 28, 2016

The World Bank Managing Director added that she and President Buhari also discussed the government’s plans to improve tax collection and crackdown on corruption.

Although Nigeria has held talks with the World Bank over a possible loan or credit facility in recent months, Indrawati did not address this when speaking to reporters after the meeting.

“We would like to know how we can help Nigeria to make the very important decisions, whether on micro economic policy and other sectoral policy, that will make this economy move forward to become a strong middle income country,” she said.

President Buhari this morning received a WorldBank delegation led by Managing Director Ms. Sri Mulyani pic.twitter.com/QnxVWH5tHG

— President Buhari (NGRPresident) April 27, 2016

Africa’s biggest economy will have to borrow 1.8 trillion naira from abroad and at home to help fund an ambitious 6 trillion naira budget ($31 billion) aimed at stimulating the economy.

About 70 percent of Nigeria’s government revenues come from the oil sector while the non- oil industry which accounts for 90 percent of the country’s GDP, remains fully untapped.

Nigeria’s economy grew by 2.8 percent last year, its slowest pace since 1999.

Reuters