World Bank Urges Better Implementation Of Federal Budget

The World Bank, has advised the Federal Government to improve on its level of budget disbursement.

The bank said that this should be of high priority in governance.

Mr Jens Kristentsen, the bank’s Lead Public Sector Governance Specialist and Cluster Leader for Anglophone West Africa, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Benin.

“Broadly speaking, Nigeria’s budget disbursement is about 17.4 per cent, which has to go up because it is a high priority for our counterpart at all levels of government and it is a high priority for the World Bank too,” Kristentsen said

He said that, “it is not only a Nigerian challenge, it is a challenge to so many countries I have worked with quite outside Africa and Asia”.

On their mission to Edo, he said, “we are here to launch the State Employment and Expenditure for Rural (SEEFOR) projects which has two components.

“In order to do what we have to do to alleviate poverty,  improve governance and help our counterparts in this country achieve their development objectives.

“The first is to specifically get the youths out of the streets, working, do some socially attractive activities like waste removal , drainage and social development projects.

“The other component is to assist the government and the state in achieving its objectives of increasing transparency and accountability in management of public resources.

“So these are the priorities of these projects,’’ Kristentsen said.