The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said on Sunday the Federal Government's request for a World Bank loan to finance the power sector was on the verge of being granted.

Ahmed stated this at a media briefing on activities of the Nigerian delegation to the just-concluded annual meetings of the World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings, in Washington, United States.

She said: "We put a request for the financing of the power sector at a range of $1.5 billion to$4billion.

"At the end of the day, it looks like we will be looking at a funding size of $3billion that will be provided in four tranches of $750 million each.

"Our plan is that the team will be able to go to the World Bank for the approval of the first tranche in April 2019."

The minister said the loan would be used to plug funding gaps and tariff differentials that private investors in the sector had always complained about. (NAN)

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