The World Bank said it had approved a US$250 million credit facility to help the Nigerian government to increase access to water supply and improve the financial as well as management viability of existing utilities.
The private Punch newspaper reported Tuesday that the credit would help to improve water supply in major cities in Africa’s most populous nation.
The funds will be used to rehabilitate and build the water delivery infrastructure and institutional systems needed to expand access to water supply services for people in selected cities in Bauchi (north), Ekiti (South-west), and Rivers states (Oil producing region).
The paper quoted World Bank Country Director for Nigeria Marie Francoise Marie-Nelly as saying the Ministry of Water Resources would also benefit from the strengthened capacity to monitor and benchmark the water sector’s performance.
The Bank noted that some two million people, particularly those living in state capitals and their surroundings, will benefit from the project.
A portion of the project is performance-based and will include incentives for improving the performance of the water supply institutions in the three states.
The second project component will provide technical and financial assistance to state governments and water utilities in nine states – Kano, Gombe, Benue, Jigawa and Plateau in the north, as well as Ondo, Abia, Bayelsa and Anambra in the south.
It will help prepare them for large water supply investments that can be financed in the future.
