IMF boss Christine Lagarde satisfied with Buhari's running of the Nigerian economy

INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Christine Lagarde has expressed confidence in the way the Buhari government is running the Nigerian government pointing out that has faith that it will resolve the ongoing financial downturn.

 

Ms Lagarde, who is currently on a four-day visit to Nigeria, came for talks in response to the currently hiccups the economy is facing, which have primarily come about due to the collapse in global oil prices.  With crude oil currently selling for $37 a barrel compared with over $100 a barrel a year ago, Nigeria is facing a chronic foreign exchange shortage.

 

This has forced most commercial banks to bar their customers from using their debit cards abroad and has led to the government tightening up on the repatriation of funds abroad. Eager to ensure the economy does not nosedive, Ms Lagarde has visited Nigeria, where she has held talks with President Muhammadu Buhari and finance minister Kemi Adeosun.

 

After talks yesterday, Ms Lagarde said she is impressed with the determination and resilience of President Buhari’s administration and Nigeria has no reason to seek an IMF loan. In addition, she stressed that she was not in the country to negotiate a loan with conditionalities attached as is usually the case.

Ms Lagarde said: “First, let me make it clear that I’m not here, nor is my team, in this country to negotiate a loan with conditionalities. We are not into programme negotiations."

 

She added that what Nigeria needs most is fiscal discipline, implementation and leadership ambitions to serve the country well for sustainability. Ms Lagarde urged Nigerian to consider some degree of flexibility in the wake of volatility of global oil prices, saying doing so would be helpful.

Furthermore, Ms Lagarde said her team had excellent discussions with President Buhari on the challenges emanating from oil price reduction, the necessity to apply fiscal discipline and responding to the population's needs. She also said she was happy with the medium term specifics of improving the competitiveness of Nigeria and focusing on the short term fiscal situation requiring that revenue sources be identified to compensate the shortfall resulting from oil price decline.

In his reaction, President Buhari told the IMF team that Nigeria will look inwards to overcome her economic challenges. He added that his administration would enforce regulations to stop financial leakages and adopt global best practices in generating more revenue to mitigate the effect of dwindling oil prices on the nation’s economy.