The International Monetary Fund, IMF, on Wednesday, called on the President Muhamadu Buhari to roll out more fiscal support to fight the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Making this call during a press briefing to unveil the IMF Regional Economic Outlook for Sub Saharan Africa, at the ongoing World Bank/IMF Spring Meeting, Washington, United States, the Director, Africa, IMF Africa Department, Abebe Aemro Selassie, stated that the medium-term focus for Nigerian government is revenue mobilisation

Advertisements

“The immediate focus now should be how to deploy resources to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

READ ALSO: IMF excludes Nigeria among 25 countries benefiting from debt relief

Advertisements

“In the near term, no amount of resources should be spent in putting behind the health crises that Nigeria faces from COVID-19 pandemic. So we see scope for more support of policies.

“In the fiscal side, Nigeria has requested for more support under the Rapid Financing Instrument. This is a quick dispensing resource that government can use to strengthen health spending, to provide social support to people.

Advertisements

“There is also scope for having the monetary/exchange rate policy framework that will be supportive of the fiscal stance. So we look forward to those policies to be adopted to support Nigeria put this crisis behind it.”

Advertisements

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.