Nigeria needs more naira reform for $1.5 bln World Bank loan, country director says
THE World Bank needs Nigeria to strengthen reforms of its currency, the naira, before it can approve a $1.5 billion loan, its country director has said. Nigeria needs the support to survive low oil prices and make it through the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic. World Bank loans are often contingent upon reforms, and its officials said previously it was "recommending" a more unified, flexible exchange rate. The Nigerian naira hit 500 per dollar on the black market last month as a dollar scarcity squeezed the economy. "We recognize how much Nigeria has done," Shubham Chaudhuri, the World Bank's…