Nigerians should henceforth look forward with optimism. And to achieve this future, Nigeria does not need to borrow. This was the position of the visiting Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde as she declared that measures so far taken by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to revive the economy were quite promising.
But she noted that Nigeria needed to show more flexibility and stronger discipline in the implementation of its fiscal policies.
Lagarde spoke after meeting with the president and his economic team including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, her counterpart in the Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele.
She used the occasion to clear the air about the public perception of IMF as an anti-people institution, noting that her visit to the country along side her team was to work with the leadership to come out with the appropriate fiscal mechanism that would help the economy.
She disclosed that IMF’s evaluation team would visit the country next week to scrutinise the 2016 budget currently before the National Assembly with a view to coming out with a response and guide the country accordingly, noting that the fund had no policy of interference with how member-countries run their fiscal policies.
She dismissed speculations that the fund came to negotiate on how Nigeria may obtain fresh loans with stringent conditions, noting that Nigeria had no need for loans, though insisting that the administration must work on fiscal discipline. (The Guardian)