Africa Press-Nigeria:<\/p>\n
The World Bank has advised President Muhammad Buhari\u2019s administration to strengthen the education system and ensure transparency in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The President, David Malpass, gave the counsel at the 2020 Annual Meetings press conference.<\/p>\n
He spoke while stating the position of the World Bank regarding human capital in Africa, Nigeria in particular.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an enormous youth population with rising unemployment, and now an added coronavirus concern. Do you see a problem or opportunity\u201d a journalist asked.<\/p>\n
In response, Malpass said he sees many problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s harder to see the opportunities; this is a bad thing that happened to the world and particularly to poor people in the world because there\u2019s not an evident solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I discussed earlier, the K-shaped recovery is a daunting challenge, because of the inequality that is expressed in that kind of outlook.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor Nigeria, the vital steps are to strengthen the health system and the education system, and we try to work in those areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso, the governance system and transparency are vital in order to reduce the corruption within the system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Malpass commended Nigeria for tackling the problem of subsidies in the hydrocarbon area.<\/p>\n
He stressed that there are substantial benefits by reducing subsidies and allowing gasoline prices to rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means that there are fiscal savings. It also means there are environmental benefits that are large, and it also allows markets to work better and to allocate resources better.\u201d<\/p>\n
The World Bank chief added that he believes progress is being made in the area and that it\u2019s valuable.<\/p>\n
On the question of opportunities, the institution urged countries to think about where they want to be in a post-COVID world that\u2019s going to be very different from the pre-COVID-19 world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means a different way of people interacting, hopefully better; a greener way of operating; and an emphasis on health care.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mentioned earlier that we\u2019ve extended the emergency health response to include vaccines and distribution of vaccines for COVID-19, but it also has the benefit of helping the vaccination programs in other areas and the healthcare outreach in other areas that will be so valuable\u201d, Malpass said.<\/p>\n