IMF boss, Lagarde didn’t meet with President Buhari to negotiate a loan – See why she visited

The global fall in the price of oil hit Nigeria quite badly and has give rise to a revenue shortfall for the nation.

This has resulted in the Federal Government proposing to borrow to the tune of trillions to sustain the economy of the country.

However, on Tuesday, January 5, Christine Lagarde, managing director, International Monetary Fund said that Nigeria does not need assistance from the IMF.

Lagarde, who is on a four-day visit to Nigeria has met President Buhari and will also meet with the Central Bank Governor and business leaders to hold talks.

“Let me be very clear: I’m not here nor is my team here to negotiate a loan with conditionalities, we’re not programming negotiations,” she said while speaking to journalists in Abuja.

“Frankly, given the determination and resilience displayed by the presidency and his team, I don’t see why an IMF programme is going to be needed,” she went on.

Lagarde revealed that the talk with Buhari was excellent and “the challenges ahead stemming from the oil price reduction” were discussed as well as the necessity of other revenue sources.

Nigeria has been forced to embrace near austerity measures to cover up for the fall in revenue resulting from the shock drop in the price of oil in the international market.

Also the naira has hit an all time low in the exchange market, inflation is rising beyond 10 percent and GDP growth stalled to under 3.0 percent

They also discussed “the necessity to apply fiscal discipline and the need to respond to the population’s needs, improving the competitiveness of Nigeria and focusing on the short-term fiscal situation”.

One of the major priorities of the Federal Government is re-stabilizing the economy of the country as well as tackle corruption and government waste which would in turn boost transparency and accountability.

Lagarde sees these as “very ambitious goals that need to be delivered upon”.

In December, the Federal Government revealed a proposed budget that increases investment on capital expenditure to stimulate growth and lower dependence on crude.

The IMF boss chose not to comment on the budget stating that it was not her place to “approve or comment on the budget”.

But she did say that the IMF would review and audit from the coming week “to really assess whether the financing is in place”.

The IMF would be looking to see “whether the debt is sustainable, borrowing costs are sensible and what must be put in place in order to address the challenges going forward”.

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