As questions begin to mount as to why Nigeria was recently excluded from the list of the 25 member countries set to enjoy the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s immediate debt service relief program, the Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has come out to clarify the reason behind this exclusion.

While communicating through her twitter handle, the minister said,  ” It is true Nigeria is not a beneficiary of recent IMF debt relief for 25 countries.  As stated in the IMF’s Executive Board statement, the relief ‘provides grants to our poorest & most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next 6 months.

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” Since Nigeria is not indebted to the IMF, there is no outstanding debt obligation to be forgiven. Nigeria’s application for new IMF financing is under consideration and receiving attention. The new application is for financing under the Rapid Financing Initiative (RFI).

” Nigeria is entitled to access up to 100% of its quota under the Rapid Financing Initiative (RFI). Our current financial position at the IMF is public information on the International Monetary Fund website.

https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/NGA ” She concluded.

It will be recalled that, about three days ago, the Executive Board of the IMF approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This relief will also help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts.

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