The World Bank Group is seeking to mobilise up to $5.79 billion in private financing for Nigeria in the 2026 fiscal year, targeting investments in agriculture, telecommunications, digital infrastructure and small businesses as the country looks to accelerate economic growth and create jobs.
The financing drive is designed to attract private investors by combining policy reforms, commercial investments, financing programmes and risk-sharing mechanisms to address persistent funding and infrastructure gaps across critical sectors of the economy.
According to the global lender, the initiative could expand broadband access, improve agricultural productivity, strengthen food security and increase access to credit for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
A major component is the Fostering Inclusive Finance for MSMEs in Nigeria programme, known as FINCLUDE, which is expected to mobilise nearly $1.89 billion in private financing and support an estimated 850,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The programme aims to expand access to finance for more than 250,000 small businesses, with women-led enterprises expected to receive 30 per cent of the financing.
The World Bank Group said its approach combines policy support from the World Bank with investment expertise from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and risk-mitigation instruments from the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) to encourage greater private-sector participation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Broadband expansion and digital infrastructure<\/strong> The World Bank Group is seeking to mobilise up to $5.79 billion in private financing for Nigeria in the 2026 fiscal year, targeting investments in agriculture, telecommunications, digital infrastructure and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow7J_NDA:productID":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trendsmill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HUkpHLnWkAAj3_N.jpg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Digital connectivity is another major focus of the investment strategy. Through the Building Resilient Digital Infrastructure for Growth (BRIDGE) project, the initiative seeks to expand access to affordable broadband through a nationwide fibre-optic network developed under a public-private partnership.
The first round of investor selection is expected to attract at least $156 million in private equity, while subsequent financing rounds could unlock up to $1.1 billion in private investment by 2030.
The project aims to extend broadband access to an additional 58 million people by 2030, bringing the total population covered from 92 million in 2025 to 150 million. It is also expected to improve connectivity for schools, healthcare facilities, households and government offices.
Agriculture and domestic production<\/strong>
Agriculture is another priority, with investments intended to improve farmers\u2019 access to quality seeds, fertilisers, digital services and markets.
The Agricultural Value Chains for Growth (AGROW) project targets one million smallholder farmers, including women and young people. It is expected to attract approximately $220 million from agribusiness companies and another $22 million from certified seed producers.
The IFC is also supporting domestic fertiliser production through financing arrangements involving Dangote Industries and Indorama Fertilizer.
The two investments are expected to strengthen local production capacity, reduce dependence on imported agricultural inputs and improve access to fertilisers for more than 10 million smallholder farmers.
Reforms and investment outlook<\/strong>
The World Bank Group linked the financing drive to economic reforms introduced in Nigeria since mid-2023, including changes to foreign-exchange management, public finances and fuel subsidies.
The reforms, it said, are helping establish more predictable conditions for investment, while further measures are expected to deepen capital markets, expand digital trade, encourage private participation in electricity and improve competitiveness.
However, attracting financing is only one part of the challenge. The scale of the economic benefits will depend on whether proposed investments translate into functioning infrastructure, stronger businesses and sustainable employment.
The $5.79 billion target therefore places renewed emphasis on the role of private capital in addressing Nigeria\u2019s development needs at a time when public resources alone remain insufficient to meet the country\u2019s infrastructure and financing requirements.
The World Bank Group said the ultimate objective is to use public-sector support and risk-sharing arrangements to attract larger pools of private investment, expand economic opportunities and support more inclusive growth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"