Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, says Nigeria does not need to take a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).In an interview with CNBC yesterday, Adeosun said taking a loan from the international financial agency isn’t a bad thing but that Nigeria is not open to explore such measures to revamp the ailing economy.
“For us, the IMF is really lender of last resort when you have balance of payments problem. Nigeria doesn’t have balance of payments problems per se, it has a fiscal problem, which is that major revenue source has lost so much value. What IMF does for you is that it gives you programmes for reforms, we are already doing as much reform as any IMF programme would impose on Nigeria. Nigerians want to take responsibility for their future. We must have our home-grown, home-designed programme of reform, that Nigerians take ownership for, because they are painful reforms.
When you go through this type of adjustment of your economy, these reforms are very painful, and they have to be home-grown. We have to take responsibility for this ourselves, so that when it succeeds, Nigerians would say; yes, we did this. I am not saying the IMF is bad, but I’m saying right now we don’t see that need. We feel this is a problem Nigerians created and Nigerians will solve”she said
