In order to help Nigerian women have better quality of life, the World Bank has approved a new $500 million loan for the country.
The World Bank revealed this in a statement, stating,
“The Nigeria for Women Program Scale Up (NFWP-SU) has received $500 million in approval from the World Bank. The scale-up finance would give the Nigerian government more assistance as it makes investments to raise the standard of living for women in that country.
“The NFWP-SU will help to ensure better economic opportunities for women, which is essential for addressing gender inequality; guaranteeing better education, health, and nutrition outcomes for families; and building women’s and communities’ resilience to climate change.”
The ability of women to create resilience to climate change, and consequently the resilience of their households and communities, is crucial, according to the World Bank.
It was stated that gender differences in incomes restrain the Nigerian economy and that women can better meet family requirements and minimize risks and the effects of climate change and other shocks on livelihoods by accumulating assets.
We have seen encouraging results from the parent NFWP, which has helped to develop economic opportunities for thousands of rural women through the Women Affinity Groups, according to Shubham Chaudhuri, the World Bank’s Country Director for Nigeria.
The NFWP model is assisting women in obtaining better livelihood options, increasing their capacity to adapt to climate change, and taking part in local government for policymaking pertaining to community empowerment.
We are optimistic that this scale-up will help Nigeria get closer to bridging this gap because doing so might result in gains of between $9.3 billion and $22.9 billion. Closing the gender gap in critical economic sectors.
According to Michael Ilesanmi, the task team leader for the Nigeria for Women Project, “The Program intends to mobilize poor and vulnerable women into diverse institutions and, utilizing these institutional platforms, link them to markets as well as financial and non-financial services. Beneficiaries of the project who participate in women’s affinity groups develop social capital that may be used to access financial, political, and economic resources, resulting in both social and economic empowerment.
The statement went on to say that the NFWP has been put into practice in six states and supports over 427,887 WAG members by helping to develop and strengthen 20,506 of these organizations.
It further stated that over the course of around two years, these WAGs had saved about NGN 4 billion ($8.9 million equivalent), with a sizeable portion of these monies always being available as loans. The NFWP has so far provided benefits to 835,573 community members via various interventions.
Mismob Media