… Resists calls for IMF solution
The Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, has explained why
the Federal Government is not excited about calls to apply for loan facility
from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to tackle some of the current economic
challenges that Nigeria is facing due to the slump in global oil prices,
reports ITRealms.
Adeosun gave this clarification on Friday at a Spring
Meetings of the IMF/World Bank alongside other speakers including IMF Deputy Managing
Director Mitsuhiro Furusawa and Rwanda Finance Minister Claver Gatete.
The Minister, who was a speaker at a panel discussion on
Africa titled, “Sub-Saharan Africa: Just a Rough Patch,” said Nigeria is
adapting to its new realities and it is implementing fiscal policies to steer
the country back on track for stable growth with a diversified economy.
These policies and investment should enable
Nigeria to show positive growth in 2017.
Adeosun emphasised that what the country is passing through
is surmountable, adding that government is already applying a cocktail of
measures to address the problem.
“Nigeria is not sick and even if we are, we have our own
local remedy,” the Minister said, in an apparent response to a question on why
the government has refused to apply for IMF loans.
Noting that the real vulnerability in the Nigerian economy
is over-dependence on a single source of revenue, oil, the Minister said, “We
have resolved to build resilience into the country’s economy to hedge against
future oil shocks. This is because dependence on oil brings about vulnerability
and laziness. So we are doing a combination of things to diversify our economy,
with revenue mobilisation to enable
sufficient investment in developing the non-oil sectors.”
We have a great opportunity to reset the Nigerian economy
and ensure that as we go forward, growth will be in a sustainable manner so
that we won’t be vulnerable to oil price fluctuations, and with a truly
diversified economy we would have enabled opportunities for wealth creation
that would have trickles down to every Nigerian.
The compelling business case in Nigeria is that the
fundamentals remain very strong, a teaming, young growing population, rich in
resources and with a government determined to finally get it right. The great
thing is that long term investors recognize this and understand the difference
between short term and long term issues and the case for Nigeria persuades one
to plan for the longer term opportunities.
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Pix: Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun
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