The Minister of Finance, Mrs Zainab Ahmed and the Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, will join other economic experts from around the world to discuss issues affecting global economy in Washington DC, U.S.
The discussions are scheduled to hold between April 9 and April 14, under the auspices of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC.
The 2019 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank is expected to bring together central bank governors, ministers of finance, parliamentarians, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organisations and the academia.
The experts will discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development and aid effectiveness.
The meeting will also feature seminars, regional briefings, press conferences and many other events with focus on global economy, international development and the world’s financial system.
Nigeria attends the meeting each year because of the quantum of investments and technical support it receives from both the IMF and the World Bank.
Although Nigeria currently has zero loans with the IMF, it enjoys technical support from the organisation.
The World Bank Group on the other hand is helping to fight poverty and improve living standards in the country through 33 Core Knowledge Product Reports and 29 ongoing National and Regional projects.
This is in addition to about 60 Trust Funds.
The World Bank Group since 1958, has supported Nigeria with loans and International Development Association (IDA) credits worth about 14.2 billion dollars.
The group in 2017 fiscal year alone committed 1.51 billion dollars to Nigeria, 2.58 billion dollars in 2018 and in 2019; it has already committed 20 million dollars on different development projects across the country.
Some of the projects are on nutrition, polio eradication, conflict monitoring, electrification, erosion, education, economic transformation, promoting fiscal transparency and accountability in states.
Meanwhile, the Executive Directors of the World Bank on Friday unanimously selected David Malpass as President of the World Bank Group for a five-year term, effective Tuesday.
Earlier in his career, Malpass served as the U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Developing Nations and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Latin American Economic Affairs.
