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IMF, World Bank laud Nigeria’s economic recovery plan, Adeosun affirms

By Mathias Okwe, Assistant Business Editor, Washington DC, U.S.
18 April 2016   |   4:12 am
From Washington, the headquarters of the Breton Woods multilateral institutions - the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in America - came praises for Nigeria's economic recovery programme.
IMF Building

IMF Building

• Nigeria seeks budget support
• CBN says forex restriction policy already paying off

From Washington, the headquarters of the Breton Woods multilateral institutions – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in America – came praises for Nigeria’s economic recovery programme, according to the Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun.

The commendation is even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, said yesterday that the country’s foreign exchange restriction policy has begun to pay off with some manufacturers of some imported goods indicating interest to begin manufacturing in Nigeria instead of offshore activities because of the high cost of imported products occasioned by the policy.

The two key government officials made the revelations in Washington DC, United States (U.S.) at a press briefing as part of activities of this year’s Spring Meeting.

The minister spoke on the gains of this year’s Spring Meeting and the several bilateral meetings held between Nigeria and her partners.

Her words: “The gains are various and important for the Nigerian government. At least, we were able to network with our colleagues, other ministers of finance of the G-7 countries and the G-24 countries and compared notes and their experiences. I think this reinforces the validation that the course we have chosen to restructure Nigeria is the right one.

“We got many endorsements and the direction in which we seek to take the Nigerian economy. Specifically, we held bilateral meetings with specific bilateral agencies, including the Islamic Development Bank where we have agreed to work together on a micro-finance scheme for women; the Japanese development agency where we have agreed to work together on power projects and they have agreed to make significant investments in the area of power which I think will be very beneficial for Nigeria and the IFC. Similarly, we had a meeting with them this morning (yesterday), again talking about investment in power and some of our banks to shore up their positions and similarly the ADfB on agreements for investments in agriculture and collaborations in a range of initiatives that would help us to diversify the economy.

“Similarly, we had discussions with the World Bank around our budget support request and we have been able to have very productive meetings to understand what the next steps are in the process and we are very positive of a good outcome.”

In his comments, the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, spoke on the various monetary policy measures of the government to boost productivity at all levels of the economy, adding that both in the medium and long terms, the various policies, including the foreign exchange policy regime, are bound to stimulate the economy.

According to him, in furtherance of its statutory mandate, the apex bank is also focusing more to expand lending to key sectors such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing, adding that some of the immediate gains of the fiscal and monetary policies are the increasing foreign investments in the economy.

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