The World Bank Group yesterday rejected request by African heads of state for cancellation of their countries’ debts, saying the world has moved past that line of action. World Bank Group President, David Malpass said, who disclosed this yesterday during a media roundtable for western and central Africa, said one of the themes of the Paris Conference two days ago, on Tuesday, was the call by African heads of state for cancellation of debts, but that’s not the direction that the world is moving at this point. Nigeria has the largest World Bank portfolio of more than $12 billion. Those are programmes under implementation covering a variety of sectors, access to electricity, water, education, health, agriculture. The World Bank says it has this year, delivered about $2 billion for Nigeria in order to help the population have access to critical services but also to support governments and institutions to provide some technical assistance to a variety of stakeholders. Malpass said over the last 10 years, the World Bank Group has invested over $200 billion in Sub-Saharan Africa and would be investing another $150 billion in Africa in the next five years to support the continent’s recovery.
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