IMF Grants 25 Nations Debt Relief, Excludes Nigeria

• IMF Grants 25 Nations Debt Relief, Excludes Nigeria

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has granted 25 nations, mostly Africans, debt relief to enable them manages the impact of COVID-19 on their economies.

According to Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director, IMF, the relief is in a form of grant-based debt service package estimated at about $500 million for these nations.

“Today, I am pleased to say that our executive board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” she said.

The 25 countries are Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen.

The fund excluded Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, likely because of the nation’s $3.4 billion contribution with the fund.

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had said Nigeria has a $3.4 billion contribution with the fund, adding that the nation has applied to draw up that much.

“Nigeria has a contribution of $3.4bn with the IMF and we are entitled to draw up to the whole of that $3.4bn. We have in the first instance applied for that maximum amount,” she said on Monday in Abuja.

“We are working hard to respond to this request so that a proposal can be considered by the IMF’s executive board as soon as possible,” Georgieva stated.