Buhari Urges World Bank To Speed-up Repatriation Of Stolen Funds

President Muhammadu Buhari Wednesday in Abuja urged the World Bank to do all within its powers to facilitate the speedy repatriation to Nigeria of stolen funds still being held by Swiss authorities. 

Speaking at a meeting with the visiting Managing Director of the World Bank, Ms. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, President Buhari said that the repatriation of the additional $320 million US dollars in Switzerland, which has been identified as illegally taken from Nigeria under the Abacha administration, will help to ease the current economic hardship facing the country.

The President assured Ms Indrawati that his administration was taking appropriate steps to ensure that public funds are no longer stolen or misappropriated by government officials.

‘‘We need the support of the World Bank for the repatriation of the funds.

"We are as concerned as the World Bank about accountability. If such repatriated funds have been misapplied in the past, I assure you that the same will not happen with us.

"Three hundred and twenty million dollars is a lot of money and we will not allow it to be misappropriated or diverted,’’ President Buhari told Ms. Indrawati.

One of the conditions given by the Swiss Authorities for the repatriation of the funds is that it should be expended on the implementation of social programmes for the benefit of the Nigerian people in an efficient and accountable way, guaranteed by the monitoring of the World Bank.

President Buhari also assured the World Bank Managing Director that his administration will honour all agreements with the Bank that will help to stimulate Nigeria's economy and reduce the level of poverty in the country.

He said that Nigeria will welcome greater international assistance for the rehabilitation of damaged homes, schools, health facilities and other infrastructure in the North Eastern states affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Ms. Indrawati told President Buhari that the World Bank was ready to use its knowledge, expertise and resources to help Nigeria achieve faster growth and development.

‘‘We will strongly support you to create jobs and ensure prosperity in Nigeria,’’ the World Bank Managing Director assured President Buhari.

She also expressed the World Bank's full support for the war against corruption being waged by the Buhari Administration.

Garba Shehu

SSA to the President

(Media & Publicity)

April 27, 2016

JONATHAN Not BUHARI Responsible For Nigeria's Current Economic Woes - Dr. Okonjo-Iweala

TheCable - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, former minister of finance, on Thursday said the zero political will to save under former President Goodluck Jonathan is responsible for the challenges the country is facing.

Speaking on “inequality, growth and resilience,” at George Washington University, the two-time finance minister said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must seek means to embed savings in national constitutions devoid of political manipulations.

Okonjo-Iweala added that Nigeria was able to save $22 billion under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which saved the country in 2008, when there was global economic meltdown.

Speaking on the Chilean saving example, Okonjo-Iweala said: “We tried it in Nigeria, we put in an oil price based fiscal rule in 2004 and it worked very well.

“We saved $22 billion because the political will to do it was there. And when the 2008 /2009 crisis came, we were able to draw on those savings precisely to issue about a 5 percent of GDP fiscal stimulus to the economy and we never had to come to the bank or the fund.

“This time around and this is the key now, you need not only need to have the instrument but you also need the political will. In my second time as a finance minister, from 2011 to 2015, we had the instrument, we had the means, we had done it before, but zero political will.

“So we were not able to save when we should have. That is why you find that Nigeria is now in the situation it is in. Along with so many other countries.”

On solving the problem of political will and political manipulations, she said: “That is the question that I ask, what do we need to do to these countries to save over a period of long accelerated growth.

“We need to devise mechanisms not just that are good technically but find a way to either embed them in the constitution or find a way to separate them from the political manipulation so that these countries can survive over time.

“To build resilience, African countries need tools, mechanisms and it is doable and we need to interrogate ourselves why we have not done it.”

She added that manufacturing was also critical to growth in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, quoting manufacturing as just 11 percent of GDP in Africa, and nine percent in Nigeria.

“I do not believe that we can be resilient, except if we can encourage manufacturing even on the goods we consume, services, entertainment industry, agriculture.

“I think these are the kinds of questions that policy makers struggle with on a daily basis and that is what we are going to answer to get resilience.

“If we don’t get these mechanisms, we politicise them, find ways to transform the base of the economy and create jobs including in manufacturing, I believe we are going to go into this looming deceleration that is being talked about.”

How I Increase My Blokos Size & Stopped Premature Ejaculation Issues That Scattered My Relationship For 2years.. Click HERE for Details