FEC approves $250m soft loan to provide basic services to some Nigerians

The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved a 150 million dollar soft loan from African Development Bank (AfDB) and 100 million dollars from African Development Finance (ADF) for Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Initiative (RWSSI).

A statement by Salisu Na’ina, Director of Information, Ministry of Finance on Wednesday in Abuja made this known.

He said that a grant of five million euros to finance Inclusive Basic Service Delivery and Livelihood Empowerment Integrated Programme in five states of the North East was also approved.

He also said that the approval followed a memo presented to the Council by the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun.

In it, she explained that the money would facilitate in improving the quality of life of 14 million people and over 2.3 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.

It would improve their standard of living by increasing their access to basic social services in the areas of potable water supply, sanitation, health care delivery and education.

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Other areas covered by the programme are entrepreneurship development, job creation and livelihoods for youth, women and the vulnerable, social cohesion and physiological support.

The spokes man recalled that in its social inclusion agenda, the Federal Government had launched a programme for rebuilding and reconstruction for peace and development in the North East, and sought support from the African Development Bank to achieve the goal.

The multi-sectoral programme will be implemented in Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba States within a span of five years starting from 2017 to December 2021, while Yobe State has already started implementing a similar programme.

The loan would be repayable in 25 years on a highly concessional interest rate, while the five benefitting states would make a counterpart funding of 6.1 per cent, the statement added.