The Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Bank, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday on how the bank could help Nigeria overcome an economic crisis caused mainly by a sharp fall in crude prices that has eaten deep into its oil revenues.
The Federal Government is planning to borrow N1.8tn from abroad and at home to help fund the over N6tn budget for this year, which has been delayed by several months due to wrangling between the Presidency and the National Assembly.
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 or other sectoral policy, that will make this economy move forward to become a strong middle income country,” she said.
Indrawati, who met the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, on Tuesday, said she and Buhari discussed the government’s “commendable goals to improve tax collection and crackdown on corruption.”
