Wednesday, April 27, 2016

World Bank and Nigerian president discuss economic crisis, Abacha loot

ABUJA (Reuters) - The World Bank's managing director and Nigeria's president on Wednesday discussed how the multilateral lender could help Nigeria overcome its economic crisis and repatriate more than $300 million stolen by a former military ruler.

On her second day of meetings with Nigerian officials, World Bank Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer Sri Mulyani Indrawati held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari which centered around plans to stimulate the flagging economy with a record 6 trillion naira ($31 billion) budget.

The economic crisis in Africa's top oil exporter has been caused mainly by a sharp fall in crude prices eating into its oil revenues, which make up about 70 percent of national income.

Nigeria will have to borrow 1.8 trillion naira from abroad and at home to help fund the budget, which has been delayed by several months and wrangling with parliament, if it goes ahead.

Although Nigeria has held talks with the World Bank over a possible loan or credit facility in recent months, Indrawati did not address this when speaking to reporters after the meeting.

"We would like to know how we can help Nigeria to make the very important decisions, whether on micro economic policy and other sectoral policy, that will make this economy move forward to become a strong middle income country," she said.

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