The World Bank is scheduled to approve a substantial financial package for Nigeria, totalling $750 million, on Tuesday, September 30, 2025.
This funding is divided across two major loans aimed at strengthening the country’s crucial digital infrastructure and enhancing its ability to tackle public health emergencies.
The move underscores the institution’s sustained commitment to supporting Nigeria’s key structural reforms and developmental projects.
The larger component of the facility is a $500 million concessional credit from the International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s fund for the world’s poorest countries.
This is designated for the Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth in Nigeria (BRIDGE) project. Championed by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, the initiative is designed to significantly expand Nigeria’s fibre-optic network from a current base of approximately 35,000 kilometres to over 125,000 kilometres.
The sheer scale of this project, estimated to cost $1.6 billion in total, highlights its transformative potential for the country’s digital landscape.
The World Bank’s contribution, alongside anticipated funds from private sector players and other multilateral development banks like the African Development Bank, will be used to close the persistent digital divide by extending high-speed broadband access into currently unserved and underserved rural and remote areas.
This move is seen as vital for fostering a truly digitally inclusive economy, improving access to education, healthcare, and financial services in marginalised communities.
The second part of the package is a $250 million loan designated for the Health Security Programme in Western and Central Africa, Phase II. This facility is part of a broader regional effort to enhance public health capabilities across the sub-region.
Coordinated domestically by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), the objective is to fundamentally improve Nigeria’s capacity to prevent, rapidly detect, and effectively respond to future public health emergencies and pandemics.
The programme will focus on strengthening regional health surveillance systems and reinforcing emergency response mechanisms, directly applying the critical lessons learned from the costly and disruptive COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the inflow of fresh capital is taking place amid rising economic anxieties regarding Nigeria’s mounting external debt profile. According to World Bank data, the country has received approximately $8.4 billion in fresh loans from the institution alone between June 2023 and August 2025, underscoring the pace of borrowing.
As a result, the World Bank Group now accounts for nearly 40% of Nigeria’s total external debt, which stood at $45.98 billion as of the first quarter of 2025.
Economists have voiced serious concerns over this trajectory. Lagos-based economist, Adewale Abimbola, noted that while concessionary borrowing for viable projects can be beneficial, the effectiveness hinges entirely on implementation and accountability.
Conversely, development economist Dr Aliyu Ilias offered a more critical perspective, warning that the country’s rapidly increasing debt—from roughly ₦87 trillion when the previous administration left office to current projections nearing ₦180 trillion—is troubling.
He cautioned that rising debt service costs risk crowding out crucial funding for essential public services, infrastructure, and job creation, potentially hindering the long-term economic growth these loans are meant to stimulate.
Therefore, while the approval of the $750 million facility is good news for the digital and health sectors, strict governance and transparent deployment of the funds are critical to ensuring the benefits outweigh the escalating debt burden.
