THE World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB) have approved a total of $402.5 million for Nigeria for the fight against COVID-19 pandemic and cushion its impacts on the economy.

While the World Bank approved $114.28 million financing in August, the AfDB, in June, approved a $288.5 million loan to help Nigeria tackle the COVID-19 pandemic and mitigate its impact on people and businesses.

According to a statement from the World Bank released on Friday, the financing included $100 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA) and $14.28 million grant from the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility.

The financing is to help scale up the country’s state-level responses to the virus, the bank submitted.

“Nigeria has ramped up its efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, but more needs to done at the state level, which are at the front line of the response,” Shubham Chaudhuri, the World Bank’s director for Nigeria said.

On the other hand, AfDB’s financing to Nigeria is the Bank’s initial response to help allay the slump in oil prices and its impact on the national economy.

“The proposed program will ensure that the fiscal position and the economy are sufficiently supported to weather the COVID-19 shocks, thereby limiting its potential adverse impact on livelihoods and the economy more generally,” Ebrima Faal, Senior Director of the AfDB for Nigeria said.

Back in April, the Board of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, approved $3.4 billion emergency loan for Nigeria to address the dire impact of the COVID-19.

The emergency financial assistance was provided under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI).

The IMF’s RFI provides rapid and low-access financial assistance to member countries facing an urgent balance of payments need, without the need to have a full-fledged program in place.

Meanwhile, in clear violation of the new guideline by the Bureau of Public Procurement, (BPP), the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) spent the sum of N202 million on six contracts from the COVID-19 Intervention Fund without evidence of procurement plans, The ICIR found out.