Guided by the firm hands of the World Bank and the United Nations Development Program, the NTEAP was a truly international experiment. While this fact represents an advancement of supranational cooperation, there existed a supreme lack of national/local authority.According to Ali Abdalla Ali, economic advisor to the Khartoum Stock Exchange and professor at Ahlia Omdurman University in the Sudan,
"Neither the NBI administration nor any riparian country could be allowed any of these funds because it had to be disbursed in accordance with WB procedures” (Ali Abdalla Ali).
Adding to this idea, Seifeselassie Lemma, director for Legal Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia and participant in the International Consortium for Cooperation on the Nile, feels that International financial institutions, such as the World Bank,
"made it difficult for upper riparian countries to secure finance for development projects without the consent of the downstream riparian countries, have a significant contribution in this regard" (Seifeselassie Lemma).
Strict policy regulations and procedures of the World Bank in conjunction with the outsourcing of policy implementation through the UNOPS represent fundamental monopolization of the NTEAP by international and not local sources.
.