President Bola Tinubu’s administration seeks to alleviate reform pains as Nigeria depends more on World Bank funding to support social programs; success depends on accountability, institutional capacity, and efficient implementation, according to SAMI TUNJI, ABNTV reports.
When President Tinubu unveiled a group of World Bank-backed programs at the State House Banquet Hall in Abuja on 16 July, the ceremony was presented as the social-policy answer to the economic reforms that have defined his administration.
The programs span livelihood support, food security, basic education, primary healthcare, public-sector governance, and assistance for communities affected by displacement. Collectively, they reveal how the administration is increasingly relying on concessional financing and results-based World Bank programs to extend social spending beyond the limits of the federal budget.
At the center of the package are $500m additional financing for the Nigeria Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus program, the $300m Solutions for the Internally Displaced and Host Communities project, and the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity programs covering governance, primary healthcare, and education.
Although Tinubu’s address described NG-CARES as a $1.25bn program, the figure includes the original $750m operation and $500m in fresh additional financing. The new financing being launched across NG-CARES, SOLID, and the HOPE components is therefore distinct from the cumulative value of the programs.
The Minister of State for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, put the fresh package at about $2.42 billion in her remarks at the event. That figure broadly reflects $500m for NG-CARES additional financing, $300m for SOLID, $500m for HOPE-Governance, $570m for HOPE-Primary Healthcare, and about $552m for HOPE-Education, including support from the Global Partnership for Education.
Behind the numbers is a policy shift. Rather than relying solely on annual appropriations to fund health centers, schools, social registers, cash transfers, and livelihood schemes, the government is embedding these interventions in multiyear programs financed largely through the World Bank’s International Development Association.
The arrangement gives Nigeria access to longer-term and generally cheaper development financing than commercial borrowing. It also brings external performance conditions, independent verification, and institutional reform requirements. But it adds to the country’s external obligations and raises a familiar question: whether borrowed money will create services and institutions durable enough to justify the repayment burden.
Tinubu assumed office in May 2023 and immediately removed the petrol subsidy before allowing a major adjustment in the foreign exchange market. The measures were intended to correct fiscal and monetary distortions, but they also increased transport, energy, food, and production costs, leaving households to absorb much of the initial impact.
The administration has consequently faced pressure to show that macroeconomic stabilization can produce improvements beyond government revenue, foreign reserves, and investor sentiment. At the Abuja launch, Tinubu acknowledged that the political and economic sustainability of the reforms would depend on how ordinary Nigerians experienced them.
“Positive results are emerging from our reforms. Robust growth is returning. Confidence is rising. But that progress must be felt in every household, not just in national statistics,” he said in an address delivered on his behalf by the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele.
Tinubu described NG-CARES, SOLID, and HOPE as instruments for converting macroeconomic stability into “better livelihoods, in every ward, for every family.”
His remarks captured the tension in the government’s policy direction. The administration argues that subsidy removal, exchange-rate reform, and revenue changes have created fiscal space, yet it is turning to the World Bank to finance a sizeable share of the programs expected to cushion vulnerable people and rebuild essential services.
The Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, admitted that the resources produced by the reforms remained insufficient for the scale of the social challenge.
“The macroeconomic reforms have released remarkable resources, some significant amount of resources for government investment in this area, but that investment is not enough, particularly in the short run,” he said.
Bagudu added that this explained the need for support from the World Bank and other development finance institutions.
The scale of poverty helps explain the urgency. The World Bank’s April 2026 Nigeria Development Update projected that poverty had risen from 40 per cent, representing 81 million people, in 2019 to about 61 per cent, or 139 million people, in 2025. It said much of the increase predated the current reforms, but the subsequent cost-of-living crisis deepened pressure on vulnerable households.
The World Bank’s new Nigeria Country Partnership Framework for the 2026–2032 fiscal period similarly said more than 60 percent of Nigerians were estimated to have lived below the national poverty line in 2025. Poor households spend as much as 70 percent of their income on food, making them particularly exposed to food-price increases.
Against that background, the loans have become more than additional project funding. They are part of the political architecture through which the government hopes to make its reforms socially tolerable.
