Sustaining reforms critical to robust economic recovery — World Bank

The World Bank says sustaining reform momentum in Nigeria is critical to ensuring  robust economic recovery beyond 2021.

World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Shubham Chaudhuri said this on Tuesday in Abuja at the presentation of the Nigeria Development Update, a bi-annual publication of the bank on the economic outlook of Nigeria.

The June edition of the publication is themed: “Resilience Through Reforms”.

Chaudhuri said though Nigeria was at a critical juncture, it had so much potential which had not been realised.

He added that with the COVID-19 crisis and the pressures on the economy, the pressures on society had been heightened.

He also said that Nigeria faced interlinked challenges in relation to inflation, limited job opportunities and insecurity.

He said “While the government has made efforts to reduce the effect of these by advancing long-delayed policy reforms, it is clear that these reforms will have to be sustained and deepened for Nigeria to realise its development potential.”

Citing the issue of removal of petroleum subsidy and subsidy on electricity, he said the over N100 billion a month that goes  into petrol subsidy mostly benefits  the rich.

He, however, said that a fraction could be used as cash transfers to support the poor at a time of rising prices or be geared towards primary health care or basic education.

“So that is part of the restructuring or policy reforms in a number of areas.

“What should the Federal Government be doing, what should the sub-national governments be doing and most importantly, what government should not be doing,” he said.