By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The World Bank has targeted connecting 32 million Nigerians to electricity and providing 58 million more people with access to broadband internet under its new Country Partnership Framework for Nigeria, covering 2026 to 2032.
The Acting Country Director of the World Bank, Taimur Samad, presented the framework on Wednesday,19 August, 2026 in Lagos during the Industrialisation and Competitiveness Forum organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, disclosing that the plan also targets 9.5 million farmers to benefit from activities designed to improve agricultural production, value addition and market linkages, while the World Bank Group plans to mobilise $4.1bn in private capital for infrastructure and agribusiness.
According to the presentation, the new framework seeks to create more and better private-sector jobs by improving the environment for competitiveness and growth, unlocking a more productive and healthier population, building resilience of people and ecosystems, and maximising private capital for infrastructure and agribusiness.
The World Bank explained that the CPF would focus on job creation, private-sector-led growth and the mobilisation of private capital, with programmes covering distributed renewable energy, broadband infrastructure, access to finance for micro, small and medium enterprises, and agribusiness.
A fact sheet presented as part of the framework indicated that 32 million people would be provided with electricity under the M300 initiative, while 58 million more people would be using broadband internet under the Digital programme. It further stated that 9.5 million farmers would benefit from activities improving production, value addition and market linkages under the AgriConnect initiative, alongside the target of mobilising $4.1bn in private capital.
The framework set a broader goal of creating more and better private-sector jobs, identifying improved competitiveness and growth as one of its key outcomes.
Under the competitiveness and growth objective, the World Bank targeted a 30 per cent increase in the non-oil revenue-to-GDP ratio, $6bn in private capital enabled and an additional 250,000 SMEs using financial services.
On human capital development, the framework targeted 40 million beneficiaries of quality health, nutrition and population services, 19.4 million students supported with better education, and an
eight-percentage-point reduction in the proportion of children under five suffering from stunting. It also targeted 41 million additional beneficiaries of social safety-net programmes and 11.7 million people with enhanced resilience to climate risks.
The World Bank stated that its new approach would concentrate support on fewer areas capable of producing large-scale and measurable results, noting that the focus on jobs was aligned with the World Bank Group Job Creation Strategy, and that the institution would double down on private-sector-led growth and private capital mobilisation.
The framework identified distributed renewable energy, broadband infrastructure, MSME access to finance and agribusiness as areas for expanded support, listing a $750 million World Bank programme alongside a $200 million IFC facility for distributed renewable energy to increase electricity access. It also included a $500 million programme for resilient digital infrastructure and another $500 million pipeline programme for sustainable agricultural value chains.
The new CPF builds on the World Bank Group’s existing engagement with Nigeria, with the presentation noting that the previous CPF provided more than $12 billion in support of national programmes, with emphasis on state-level and results-based financing.
According to the presentation, the World Bank currently maintains an active $15.9 billion portfolio involving 30 projects in Nigeria, with two-thirds of the portfolio implemented through national programmes at the state level, and half of it using results-based financing. It further disclosed that the World Bank had increased its average loan size from $415 million in 2021 to $580 million in 2025, while reducing the number of projects from 36 to 30.
The new framework also provides for closer collaboration among the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, with annual business planning designed to provide flexibility.
The World Bank said it would continue growing its engagement with states and maintain its focus on resilience, including climate adaptation, gender and work in conflict-affected areas.
The CPF further identified macroeconomic stability and governance, the business-enabling environment, early childhood development, social protection, human capital and skills development, digital transformation, power and energy access, climate resilience, agriculture, and access to finance among its pathways for achieving the targeted outcomes.
