$150m grant: World Bank wants Nigerian youth empowered

The World Bank has mandated the various state governments in the country to initiate youth empowerment proposals in order to benefit from the $150m set aside by the global financial institution for Nigeria, which is expected to mature by 2012.

World Bank‘s Team Sector leader, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa, made the disclosure on Friday in Kano at a workshop on “Country Partnership Strategy for Nigeria.”

The sector leader pointed out that the bank would focus on governance, non-oil growth and human development, saying that the mode of selection would be based on the requirements by the states, agreement with government, state level governance capability and commitment, as well as geographical balance across all six zones and existing state programmes.

Okunmadewa disclosed that the World Bank was calling on interested state governments to map out their priority and forward same to the bank for a critical assessment, so as to determine its viability in the rural areas.

According to the Department for International Development, the United Kingdom aid programme has increased from N30bn and is expected to rise to N35bn next year.

The strategy, according to the donors, will ensure that international assistance is focused on the right priorities, and allow development partners coordinate more effectively with the National Planning Commission, to avoid duplication and increase the impact of assistance.

It was also acknowledged that the new joint country partner strategy would help development partners get behind federal and state governments‘ reform efforts, and support Nigeria‘s new Vision 2020.

Okunmadewa added that youth unemployment was commonplace in both the south and northern parts of the country.

The sector team also lauded the Federal Government over the creation of a Ministry of Youth Development, saying it was in line with the World Bank‘s objective of addressing the problem of youth unemployment in the country.

He also stressed the need to tackle the problems associated with unstable power supply, road, and water supply and charged state governments in the country to come up with their respective proposals to be able to access support from the World Bank.

He disclosed that the World Bank‘s human development goals would be tailored across the six geo-political zones in education, especially in the north where the indicators were weak.

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