The board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved the sum of $3.4 billion to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 fight.
The emergency financial assistance to Nigeria is the highest so far to any member country.
The IMF said the assistance, facilitated via the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI), will help limit the decline in Nigeria’s international reserves.
It will also help to provide financing for the country’s budget, which has been severely affected by falling oil prices triggered by the pandemic and price wars.
The IMF also praised the Nigerian government’s “immediate” response to the crisis, describing it as “welcome.”
However, it noted that short-term focus should be on higher health spending and palliative for households and businesses.
The financial body also said Nigeria should take steps to unify its exchange rate as quickly as possible.
Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of the IMF, Mitsuhiro Furusawa said;
After the COVID-19 crisis passes, Nigeria’s focus should remain on medium-term macroeconomic stability, with revenue-based fiscal consolidation essential to keep Nigeria’s debt sustainable and create fiscal space for priority spending.
It would be recalled that IMF on April 13 announced immediate debt relief for 25 poor countries, mostly in Africa and Middle-East to help them free up funds to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
However, Nigeria was excluded from the debt relief by the IMF.
In his response to the exclusion, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Ayuba Wabba said;
We call for the inclusion of Nigeria in the beneficiary list for the COVID-19 related debt relief and debt moratorium based on very cogent reasons.
However, the Minister of Finance clarified that Nigeria couldn’t be granted debt relief since it is not indebted to the IMF and has no outstanding debt obligation to be forgiven.
She added that Nigeria had applied for new financing at the IMF and the country’s application “is under consideration and receiving attention.”
Hence, the $3.4billion approved by IMF for Nigeria to fight against Coronavirus.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Senate had also approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request to secure a fresh loan of N850 billion to fund some projects in the 2020 budget.
The Buhari administration said it seeks to raise the loan from the domestic capital market to ensure adequate funds to finance projects in the budget.
