Managing Director of International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, on Tuesday said that her visit to Nigeria was not meant to negotiate loans but rather to promote physical discipline and favourable monetary policies.
Lagarde stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
She said that she had an “excellent discussion’’ with President Muhammadu Buhari on the challenges facing Nigeria occasioned by the drastic fall in oil price.
“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 and frankly at this point in time, given the determination, resilience displayed by the President and his team, I don’t see why an IMF programme will be needed.
“So, of course, discipline is going to be needed, of course, implementation is going to be key for the objectives and the ambitions to serve the country well, in order for it to be actually sustainable.’’
On the assertion that IMF programmes are always anti-people, Lagarde, who emerged IMF boss in May 2011, described such view as outdated, saying IMF programmes were in favour of the less-privileged members of the society.
She said that the IMF policies and programmes were not meant to impoverish poorer member countries but rather to assist them with quality policy advice, technical assistance and capacity building.
According to her, about 150 out of the 188 member- countries of the IMF had so far benefited from the institution’s technical assistance and capacity building.
“ If I may say, I think that you have slightly outdated idea of the IMF.
“Certainly, the last four and a half years, since I have been managing director of this institution, this is not the recipes we adopted and this is certainly not the feedback I have received from the countries that we have worked with.
“I just want to point out that we are majorly involved in three kinds of activities.
“The first one, which is the most traditional one, is under which we give policy advice to our members, we have currently 188 countries that are under this institution and it is our duty and accountability to them to review their economy every year to give them report about their economy.
“We don’t push them, we don’t do things necessarily to please them; we say things as we see them.
“The second activity, which is the fastest growing one in the institution, is technical assistance and capacity building, and there is plenty of that is available to all the countries of the world.
“It gives us pride to see that about 150 countries have had the benefit of technical assistance and capacity building.’’
Lagarde, who pledged more technical assistance and capacity building for Nigeria, however, stressed the need for the country to develop a strong tax department, efficient debt management and customs authority to achieve a strong economy for the country.
She commended the determination of the President Buhari’s administration to fight corrupt practices and to bring about transparency and accountability at all levels of the economy.
Earlier, Buhari had told Lagarde that his administration would look inwards and enforce regulations to stop financial leakages to mitigate the effect of dwindling oil prices on the Nigerian economy.
A statement by the president’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, said the President stated this when he received Lagarde.
Buhari said that his administration would adopt global best practices in generating more revenue, and also enforce greater discipline, probity and accountability in all revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government.
“We have just come out of budget discussions after many weeks of taking into consideration the many needs of the country, and the down turn of the economy with falling oil prices and the negative economic forecasts.
“We are working very hard and with the budget as our way forward, we will do our best to ensure that our country survives the current economic downturn.
“We have also told all heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government that are on our watch, they will fully account for all funds that get into their coffers,’’ he said.
The president said that the federal government was reviewing its operational costs and had directed all the MDAs to cut down on their overhead costs.
Buhari said the federal government would welcome the technical support and expertise of the IMF for its plans to diversify the Nigerian economy and further unleash its growth potentials.
In her remarks, Lagarde said that the IMF would be willing to assist the federal government in plugging revenue leakages, tracing stolen funds and restructuring its tax system.
She said that Nigeria had all the potentials to overcome the current economic challenge of falling commodity prices without resorting to the IMF for financial support.
Also, Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said that the meeting between the Federal Government’s economic team and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was very fruitful.
She gave the impression after both groups discussed the outlines of the 2016 appropriation bill at the office of the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.
Adeosun told State House correspondents that IMF wanted to understand what the economic team was doing and to share ideas with them on how best to run the country’s economy.
“We just completed first two sessions of Madam (Christine) Lagarde’s visit to Nigeria.
“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) are here; and she is really here to speak to us to understand what the economic team is doing and to share ideas and knowledge.
“And the meeting was very productive.
“We were able to outline our plans as outlined in our budget.
“We were able to go into some details around how we intend to untie the budget objectives and share ideas on what we can do within the current global economy.
“So, it was a useful meeting; it was a positive meeting.
“I think Madam made it very clear that IMF are not here as part of any form of programme; they are not here to lend us money; they are here to give us technical support, advice and really get to know what the new economic team is doing.
“And I think it was a very positive meeting.’’
Lagarde told a news conference that she had seen many changes in Nigeria since the Buhari administration came into office.
“If you look back four years ago, it seems that a massive democratic change occurred in this country peacefully.
“Nigeria has become the largest economy in Africa; certainly the most populated and a very attractive market,’’ she said.
Largarde added that IMF would support capacity building and strengthen the revenue generating agencies in the country to improve the country’s competitiveness, focusing on the very short term fiscal situation and long term growth.
She said the meeting focused on how efficiency, transparency, accountability and enlarging of revenue could contribute to the sound implementation of the 2016 budget.
She also acknowledged Buhari’s determination to fight corruption, bring about transparency and accountability at all levels of the economy.
According to the IMF chief, Nigerian with a vibrant and large economy, still has to deal with poor people with inequalities and its economy will impact on not only the citizens but also the neighbouring nations.
