Nigeria, Feb. 25 -- The Nigerian government has said that unifying the exchange rate of Naira will not happen "overnight".

Explaining its delay in securing a further $1.5 billion credit from the World Bank, the finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, said the government has taken steps to meet the lender's requirements but said its insistence that the gap between the spot and the parallel market rates be closed will take time.

"Our point is that it's not what you do overnight," Mrs Ahmed told journalists on Thursday. "It's not that you wake up and make a pronouncement and that happens. It's something that you have to do overtime taking several measures and working systematically for it to happen."

"So, we are still pushing our view with the Wo...