Nigeria is advancing plans for what could become the second-largest single World Bank loan ever secured under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The proposed $1.25 billion facility, formally titled Nigeria Actions for Investment and Jobs Acceleration, is structured as a Development Policy Financing operation and is scheduled for consideration by the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors on June 26, 2026. If approved, it would push total multilateral credit from the World Bank to Nigeria under the current administration to an estimated $10.6 billion — a figure that reflects both the ambition and the fiscal exposure of Nigeria’s reform programme.
The World Bank programme document outlines the proposed loan’s development objective as supporting the government’s efforts to expand access to finance, digital services, and electricity, while strengthening competitiveness through tax, trade, and agriculture reforms. These are precisely the structural bottlenecks that economists have long identified as the barriers between Nigeria’s economic potential and its actual performance.
The announcement arrives against a backdrop of intensifying scrutiny over Nigeria’s borrowing trajectory. The Nigerian Economic Summit Group, in its May 2026 Debt Burden Monitor, noted fresh concerns over Nigeria’s debt burden, with the outlook for 2026 indicating new borrowings of approximately N29 trillion.
The Tinubu administration’s engagement with the World Bank is not new, but its scale has been remarkable. Between June 2023 and May 2026, the World Bank has approved approximately $9.35 billion in loans and credits for Nigeria, spanning multiple sectors including power, education, healthcare, agriculture, social protection, and renewable energy.
The new $1.25 billion facility is structured around two central policy pillars. The first pillar will focus on access to finance, digital services, and electricity — supporting the Investment and Securities Act 2025, operationalisation of credit enhancement facilities, adoption of the National Digital Economy and E-Governance Bill, a national metering framework, and private participation in interconnected mini-grids. The second pillar will focus on competitiveness through trade, tax, and agriculture reforms, including reducing trade barriers, improving seed supply, VAT e-invoicing, and a minimum effective corporate tax rate.
However, the World Bank has been candid about the challenges ahead. The Bank assessed the overall risk of the new loan operation as high, citing political and governance risks associated with the 2027 elections, macroeconomic risks from oil price vulnerability, inflationary pressure from ongoing Middle East tensions, possible setbacks in revenue reforms, election-related fiscal loosening, and weak coordination among ministries and agencies.
Read More: Nigerian Government Intensifies Economic Reform Agenda Amid Inflation and Currency Stabilization Efforts
Nigeria’s Accountant-General of the Federation has taken a notably assertive posture in negotiations. Dr Shamseldeen Ogunjimi warned that the Tinubu government could walk away from World Bank loan arrangements if approval and disbursement delays persist, emphasising that these are loans, not grants, and that Nigeria as a responsible borrower deserves timely processing of its fund requests.
The central policy question for Tinubu’s government is not whether to borrow, but whether each borrowed dollar is translating into measurable improvements in the lives of Nigerians — 63 percent of whom were still living in poverty in 2025. The credibility of Nigeria’s reform programme, and ultimately the administration’s political future, will be judged on that standard.
Today’s Key Highlights
- FG advancing plans for a $1.25B World Bank loan, scheduled for board approval June 26, 2026
- Total World Bank approvals under Tinubu to exceed $10.6 billion if loan is approved
- Loan targets finance access, digital infrastructure, electricity, trade, and agriculture reform
- World Bank rates overall risk of new loan as “high” due to 2027 election pressures and governance gaps
- Nigeria’s Accountant-General warns government may reject World Bank facilities delayed beyond six months
