Nigeria not in need of foreign solutions, World bank says

Nigeria not in need of foreign solutions, World bank says

NEWS DIGEST – The World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria and Coordinating Director for West Africa Regional Integration, Rachid Benmessaoud, stated that Nigeria does not need foreign solutions to its Power challenges.

“What Nigeria needs is scale, we need development scale and solutions that can work in the Nigerian context.” Rachid Benmessaoud, said this during a meeting between the World Bank Team and officials of the Edo State Government, at the Government House in Benin City.

The Director, in his comment on the success of Edo-Azura Power project executed by the Governor, said; “the Executive Directors are studying how we can replicate this success, not only in the next Azura Phase II or III, but what it will take to do five more Azuras in Nigeria and other parts of the world.”

“The question on everyone’s lips now is how can we have more Azuras in West Africa?” which he answered by revealing the plans of the Executive Directors, who have started looking at East Africa to replicate the Edo model.

However, the World bank official lauded Governor Godwin Obaseki’s impact on the development of the state, which leverages on the synthesis of the expertise of the private sector and an open, transparent public sector.

He opined that World Bank is impressed with how his government was able to provide the conducive environment for the private sector by operating a transparent, open and accountable government, and understanding what it takes for the private sector to come in by bringing the public element to the private sector.

“The Executive Directors of the bank are appreciative of the fact that you brought the public and private angles to address the state’s development challenges.” Benmessaoud noted.

In furtherance, he added that “You have established a flagship effort that has resulted in the Azura power plant where you brought all of us together as one World Bank group at the site. We appreciate you and your team. I think you have done a lot in the state. We are very proud to be part of this journey. We hope to see how we can continue the journey.”

“This is absolutely in line with what our President, Jim Yong Kim wants us to do. He wants us to focus on two things. One building human capital and second, maximizing finance for development.”

According to the World Bank official, “Human capital entails investing in your own people because that is not the role the development partner can play.”

He assured that “What we will do on human capital is to assist your government address the human capital needs. We will put our resources into it.

Both the resources of the world Bank and other development partners will be used to assisting you find solutions to development challenges.”