Abuja — Members of the Senate yesterday demanded from international donor agencies operating in the country to carry along for better monitoring and accountability of their operations.

Chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Ecology Senator Grace Bent said this at the presentation of the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) II for Nigeria to the Senate by the International Development Association, led by the World Bank.

She said: "We need the donor agencies to be more concerned with the Senate either through the committees on their projects of priority or through capacity building."

Also speaking, the Committee's Vice Chair Muhammed A. Muhammed said: "We need to know what the donor agencies are doing from the beginning of the projects to the end. That will help us to monitor the project implementation and ensure transparency. What we need is development of the country." Another lawmaker Senator Bassey Henshaw, a member of the senate committee on Appropriation said he was worried that over the years, the interaction between the Nigeria government and the World Bank and other donor agencies has not translated to the commensurate economic transformation of the economy.

In his remarks, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa, a lead Special Development Specialist at the World Bank said the bank has limited leverage with the Nigeria government. He said: "All we can do is to offer advice because the challenges with country are beyond external intervention. We are opened to legislators to call us to question if there is anything we are doing that is not right. We are interested in helping to develop the country."