Elaeis guineensis originally grew in West Africa. The southern coast of Nigeria was originally called the Palm oil coast by the first Europeans who arrived there and traded in the commodity. This area was later renamed the Bight of Biafra. In traditional African medicine different parts of the plant are used as laxative and diuretic, as a poison antidote, as a cure for gonorrhea, menorrhagia, and bronchitis, to treat headaches and rheumatism, to promote healing of fresh wounds and treat skin infections. In Malaysia, the first plantations were mostly established and operated by British plantation owners, such as Sime Darby and Boustead,
Nigeria and the World Bank pillars that were focused on were social service delivery, community empowerment, and creating a basis for non-oil growth. These all proved to be moderately unsatisfactory according to the World Bank evaluation. Although change was slow, by 2007 better results started to come from the projects in Nigeria. In 2016, Nigeria ranked as the 12th highest loan recipient from the World Bank with 6.6 billion dollars.As of 2018, the World Bank has a total of 31 projects in 772 locations in Nigeria. This all adds up to $9.21 billion worth of programs in sectors of like social protection, health, agriculture, fishing,