Nigeria seeks World Bank guarantees to unlock private investment
||Bangkok Nigeria is seeking greater access to World Bank guarantees to attract private investment into infrastructure and sustain economic growth
World Bank guarantees are risk-mitigation instruments that insure private investors and lenders against losses from government default, currency inconvertibility or policy reversals, making it cheaper and less risky to finance infrastructure in countries like Nigeria where public finances are strained. For a government grappling with limited fiscal space, high debt-service costs and naira volatility, such guarantees are seen as a way to crowd in private capital for roads, power, rail and other projects without directly increasing public borrowing.
The push comes as Nigeria uses the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings to court investors, presenting a pipeline of dozens of projects it hopes will absorb tens of billions of dollars in capital. BusinessDay's report centres on the guarantee mechanism itself and its role in sustaining growth, while Nairametrics details the scale of the ask — 65 projects valued at $78.5 billion — underscoring the gap between Nigeria's infrastructure needs and available financing. Neither report specifies which guarantee instruments have been secured, how much funding has firmly materialised, or a timeline for project rollout, leaving the practical outcome of the overtures still unclear.