Reviews country programme portfolio at state level

THE World Bank has broadened its areas of support in Nigeria. Statistics from the world body at the weekend indicated that the bank’s engagement had also shifted from being federal government centric to a more balanced federal and state level support.

These details emerged recently as the bank commenced its Nigeria country programme portfolio.

Country Director of the World Bank in Nigeria, Maria Francoise Marie-Nelly, who spoke, at a mini-country performance portfolio review meetings held in Minna, Niger State, stressed that the review was in partnership with government with the aim of assessing the performance of the portfolio at state level.

She said that the review was with the aim of identifying measures to address specific constraints, umpire implementation and increase tangible exults on the ground and better align the bank’s portfolio with the states’ priorities and implementation instruments.

“It is expected that using a state level lens for the review will engender a more coordinated response and provide a cohesive framework to identify issues and address issues,” she stressed.

According to her, at the end of the review, there would be greater involvement of state governments and their ministries, departments and agencies in the monitoring portfolio results; accelerate disbursements in participating states by end of December 2013, better coordination at state level and improve alignment of bank resources to their state and sectoral allocations.

Her words: “Where are we? The bank collaborates with the government to conduct annual country portfolio performance reviews to assess progress in project implementation and contributions to the delivery of desired development objectives.

“The bank is the largest overseas development assistance provider to Nigeria and its support is important because of the associated technical assistance programmes that provide knowledge -sharing opportunities and knowledge activities in the form of analytical and advisory activities.”

The participants at the review meeting included project directors from Niger, Nasarawa, Kwara, Abuja, Kaduna, Zamfara, Kano and Kebbi states. The Federal Ministry of Finance through the International Economic Relations Department led the review meeting from the government angle while the National Planning Commission acted as observer.

The review, according to Marie-Nelly, included field visit to selected project sites, discussions in plenary and in groups and development of an action plan.