World Bank Suspends Nigerian Company, MD For Bribery

SoftTech IT Solutions and Services Limited, a Nigerian information technology solutions company, and its Managing Director, Isah Kantigi have been sanctioned by the World Bank.

Kantigi and his IT company were suspended for alleged corruption, as part of the National Social Safety Nets Project in Nigeria.

The firm was sanctioned for 50 months while Kantigi received a 60-month punishment.

With this decision, both the company and Kantigi are now ineligible to participate in projects and operations financed by the World Bank Group.

In a piece of related news, the World Bank said that the number of poor Nigerians is projected to hit 95.1 million in 2022.

The bank made this known in its poverty assessment report titled ‘A Better Future for All Nigerians: 2022 Nigeria Poverty Assessment’.

The report noted that COVID-19 crisis is driving up Nigeria’s poverty rate, pushing more than 5 million additional people into poverty by 2022.

With real per capita GDP growth being negative in all sectors in 2020, the bank said poverty is projected to have deepened for the current poor, while those households that were just above the poverty line prior to the COVID-19 crisis would be likely to fall into poverty.