he World Bank has approved of $750 million for the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP) through the International Development Association (IDA).1 The disbursement plan to commence in 2021 is as follows: $426 million in 2021 and $162 million in 2022 and 2023, respectively, summing up to $750 million. The recovery plan being set up is to enable Nigeria achieve a more reliable electricity supply and improve the accountability of the power sector. Presently, approximately 47 percent of the population do not have access to national grid electricity. The population that has access are subjected to frequent power outages, a major constraint that costs the Nigerian economy around $28 billion, annually – equivalent to 2 percent of the GDP. Furthermore, the aim of the PSRP is to make Nigeria a more financially sustainable nation and it will achieve this by increasing the annual electricity supplied to the national grid by 4,500 MWh/hour by 2022. Aside improving service delivery, the additional liquidity will strengthen the balance sheet of distribution companies and enhance their ability to attract private finance. Furthermore, the government will be better positioned to utilize the resources previously used to bail out the power sector for other development spending.
October 27, 2020
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 38)
Related
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 9)
Crude oil prices fluctuated during the
review week. OPEC weekly basket price decreased marginally from $53.63 on
February 24, 2017 to $53.34 on March 3, 2017. Similarly, Brent
crude declined (week-on-week) by 0.84 percent to $55.15, while
Bonny light decreased by 2.4 percent to $54.4 per barrel. During
the week, reports of Russias incomplete compliance to agreed production cut and
rising United States crude production/inventories, led to the
slight pressure exerted on oil prices. The uncertainties and volatility of
global crude oil price stresses the need for the government to channel efforts
at developing other key sectors of the economy, particularly the manufacturing
sector.
Nigeria Economic Update (Issue 6)
The
nations foreign reserves have been on a steady rise. In the review week,
reserves increased by $415.2 million from $28.3 billion on February 3, 2017 to
$28.8 billion on February 10, 2017. The increase is likely the
reflection of a sustained crude oil revenue complemented by moderating global
crude oil price and increasing domestic production. This should help strengthen
the ability of the CBN to foster forex liquidity, and thus help maintain
stability in the domestic forex market. If sustained, it should also help
improve the value of the naira overtime. Hence, the government should implement
proactive and effective policy strategies to, not only, sustain improvements in
oil revenue but also boost non-oil revenue.