•Explains why some multinationals are leaving Nigeria

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has said the World Bank board of directors would consider a loan of $2.25 billion for Nigeria in two weeks.

Recall that the minister had on April 21, disclosed that the country qualified for the World Bank loan of $2.25 billion, with one per cent interest rate.

Speaking on Channels Television’s ‘Sunday Politics’ programme on Tuesday night, Edun said the country would receive part of the funding soon.

He said:  “In two weeks’ time, the board of the World Bank will consider a $2.25 billion package for Nigeria, which is virtually free money or almost grant funding.’’

Edun said the loan had a very low interest rate and was not being given under conditionalities.

“A large part of it, $1.5 billion, is what they call ‘development policy operation’.  Essentially, it is in recognition of what has been done to stabilise the Nigerian economy and get it back on the path to growth and the funding will come virtually immediately.  At least, the one part of it will come virtually immediately after that board meeting.”

He said the country was confident about and looking forward to the disbursement of the loan, adding that this shows “we know how to use the multilateral development banks to our advantage”.

Why some multinationals are leaving Nigeria.

Explaining why some multinationals were living the country, Edun said the government was working on the economic and investment climate to attract more multinationals into Nigeria.

He said multinational companies exiting the country did not have liquid foreign exchange market.

He said, “One of the major drawbacks, one of the major impediments for them, (exiting multinationals) was they did not have a liquid foreign exchange market.

“Now, we have a willing buyer, willing seller foreign exchange market. It is elevated, may be not at the levels we will like it to be but it is when you get inflation down that you can stabilise the exchange rate and even get it coming down similarly with the interest rate.

‘’That fight is on. It is an improved environment for them, for big investors as a whole.”

He said recent executive orders signed by President Bola Tinubu has improved the investment climate for gas which Nigeria had in abundance.

“Companies will always come and go, of course, our aim is to not only keep them but to have them even more coming to invest, and we are sure that with the environment that we put in place, they would come,’’ the minister said.

He said a proposal to make things easier for both local and foreign manufacturers operating in the country were in an Economic Stabilisation Package before the President.

“We are in a difficult place but the direction of travel is and it’s towards improvement. So, every single day, every single month, we are looking at an improved economic situation for Nigeria,’’ he said.