Buharri urges world bank to facilitate speedy repatriation of stolen funds

President Buhari has urged the World Bank to do all within its powers to facilitate the speedy repatriation to Nigeria of stolen funds still being held by Swiss authorities.

Speaking at a meeting with the visiting Managing Director of the World Bank, Ms. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, President Buhari said that the repatriation of the additional $320 million in Switzerland, which has been identified as illegally taken from Nigeria under the Abacha administration, will help to ease the current economic hardship facing the country.

Buhari assured Ms Indrawati that his administration was taking appropriate steps to ensure that public funds are no longer stolen or misappropriated by government officials.

‘‘We need the support of the World Bank for the repatriation of the funds. We are as concerned as the World Bank about accountability. If such repatriated funds have been misapplied in the past, I assure you that the same will not happen with us. Three hundred and twenty million dollars is a lot of money and we will not allow it to be misappropriated or diverted,’’ President Buhari told Ms. Indrawati.

One of the conditions given by the Swiss Authorities for the repatriation of the funds is that it should be expended on the implementation of social programmes for the benefit of the Nigerian people in an efficient and accountable way, guaranteed by the monitoring of the World Bank.

Buhari also assured the World Bank Managing Director that his administration will honor all agreements with the Bank that will help to stimulate Nigeria's economy and reduce the level of poverty in the country.
He said that Nigeria will welcome greater international assistance for the rehabilitation of damaged homes, schools, health facilities and other infrastructure in the North Eastern states affected by the Boko Haram insurgency.

Ms. Indrawati told President Buhari that the World Bank was ready to use its knowledge, expertise and resources to help Nigeria achieve faster growth and development.

‘‘We will strongly support you to create jobs and ensure prosperity in Nigeria,’’ the World Bank Managing Director assured President Buhari.
She also expressed the World Bank's full support for the war against corruption being waged by the Buhari Administration.

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Scotland just put a woman on the new £5 note

Congratulations are in order to the nation of Scotland, which has just decided that novelist and poet Nan Shepherd will

 be featured on the next Bank of Scotland £5 note.

Last week we reported that women only feature on nine per cent of the world’s paper currency - and Queen Elizabeth II features on 74 of the 120 bills. Without her, women only feature on three per cent of the world's money.

Shepherd will bring the number of women to appear on paper money worldwide up to a grand total of 47 when the note comes into circulation by the end of 2016.

Shepherd is most famous for her non-fiction work “The Living Mountain” about hillwalking in the Cairngorms, as well as her career as a teacher of teachers.

The scientist Mary Somerville, the first female member of the Royal Astronomical Society, is already set to appear on the Scottish £10 note, which will be available in 2017.

Scotland is outdoing the rest of the UK: on Friday the Bank of England announced that artist JMW Turner will be appearing on the £20 note after 2020, in the same year that the reformer Elizabeth Fry will be replaced by Sir Winston Churchill on the English £5.

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