Nigeria’s Federal Government has intensified engagement with the World Bank for a fresh $1.25 billion loan aimed at supporting economic reforms, job creation, and national competitiveness.
The proposed facility, titled “Nigeria Actions for Investment and Jobs Acceleration”, has reached a critical stage in the lender’s approval process and is expected to be presented to the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors for approval on June 26, 2026.
If approved, the loan will rank as the second-largest single World Bank facility secured under President Bola Tinubu, surpassed only by the $1.5 billion Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation Development Policy Financing approved in June 2024. At the current exchange rate of approximately N1,361 to the dollar, the proposed facility translates to roughly N1.70 trillion.
The World Bank has now approved about $9.35 billion in loans and credits for Nigeria between June 2023 and May 2026, spanning sectors including power, education, healthcare, agriculture, and financial market development. Approval of the new loan would push total World Bank commitments under Tinubu to approximately $10.6 billion.
The fresh borrowing move comes amid growing scrutiny of Nigeria’s rising dependence on multilateral financing. If approved and fully disbursed, the $1.25 billion facility would push Nigeria’s external debt from N74.43 trillion ($51.86 billion) as of December 2025 to at least N76.13 trillion ($53.11 billion), with total public debt potentially rising to around $112.22 billion.
Implementation of the programme is to be coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Finance, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria and other key agencies, with disbursements tied to the fulfilment of specific policy and reform benchmarks.
