The World Bank has approved three operations for a total of $1.57bn to support the Federal Government in strengthening human capital through better health for women, children and adolescents and building resilience to the effects of climate change, such as floods and droughts through improving dam safety and irrigation.

The new financing includes $500m for addressing governance issues that constrain the delivery of education and health (HOPE-GOV), $570m for the Primary Healthcare Provision Strengthening Program (HOPE-PHC) and $500m for the Sustainable Power and Irrigation for Nigeria Project (SPIN).

The HOPE-GOV and HOPE-PHC programs combined will support FG in improving service delivery in the basic education and primary healthcare sectors, which are critical to improving Nigeria’s human capital outcomes.

The SPIN project will support improving the safety of dams and the management of water resources for hydropower and irrigation in selected areas of Nigeria.

The HOPE-GOV Program will address underlying governance weaknesses in the systems and procedures of government in two key human development sectors.

It will particularly focus on critical cross-cutting challenges and enabling factors related to both financial and human resource management in basic education and primary healthcare sectors.

The Program will increase availability and effectiveness of financing for basic education and primary healthcare service delivery, enhance transparency and accountability of financing and improve recruitment, deployment and performance management of basic education teachers and primary healthcare workers by federal, state, and local governments.

In support of FG’s newly launched reforms in the health sector, the apex bank said under the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, the HOPE-PHC project will improve the quality and utilisation of core reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health and nutrition services to substantially reduce maternal and under-five mortality and to improve the resilience of the health system— benefiting 40 million people, especially vulnerable populations.

The project is financed by a concessional $500m International Development Association (IDA) credit and an additional $70m in grant financing from the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF).

The GFF support includes $11m from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and $12.5m from the Children’s Investment Foundation Fund (CIFF) through joint financing with the GFF to help close the financing gap for primary and community healthcare and maternal newborn care at hospital-level, while also supporting government efforts to ensure sustainable financing for family planning commodities.

The SPIN Program will help Nigeria protect citizens from floods and drought through enhanced dam safety and operations.

The project will further support the provision of new and improved irrigation and drainage services over an area of 40,000 hectares.

This will help up to 950,000 people including households, farmers, and livestock breeders to directly benefit from more reliable, climate-resilient, and efficient irrigation, water supply and increased agricultural productivity through improved irrigation water management.

Through the SPIN project, the government will develop a master plan for hydropower and a structured public-private partnership transaction for a hydropower project.

“Effective investment in the health and education of Nigerians today is central to increasing their future employment opportunities, productivity, and earnings, while reducing poverty of the most vulnerable.

This new financing for human capital and primary healthcare will help to address the complex difficulties faced by Nigerians especially women and girls around access and quality of services, but also the governance arrangements that also explain these difficulties” said Dr. Ndiamé Diop, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria.

“The SPIN program is timely and will protect Nigerians from floods and droughts in the areas where it will be implemented, while enabling an increase in hydropower generation.

The direct positive impact of this project on people and livelihoods is enormous, The World Bank is pleased to work with the government and other stakeholders to deliver this program,” Diop added.