Gov. Ortom dumps APC

We will not borrow from IMF - Federal Government

- The federal government has said it will not borrow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

- The minister of finance Kemi Adeosun said Nigeria is not having any challenge on balance of payment and will not obtain a loan from the IMF

- She said the country is currently faced with fiscal challenges and that the federal government expect the nation to take responsibility for their future

The federal government has said it will not borrow from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Speaking in an interview with CNBC Africa on Tuesday, February 22, the minister of finance Kemi Adeosun said the country was not having any challenge on balance of payment and will not obtain a loan from the IMF.

While affirming that the stringent conditions linked with borrowing from IMF, Adeosun said Nigeria is currently faced with fiscal challenges and that the federal government expect the nation to take responsibility for their future.

“The issue of the IMF borrowing is a huge national debate. For us, the IMF is a lender of last resort, when you have balance of payment problems," Adeosun said.

"Nigeria does not have Balance of Payment problem per se, it has a fiscal problem, which is that its major revenue sources lost so much value. First we lost price, then we lost quantity," she said.

The minister added that while the challenges vary, the IMF gives loan for programmes or reform projects.

She said the federal government is currently doing all it takes to reforms and fund various intervention programmes in Nigeria.

“So, my question is what would that bring that we are not already doing? What measures would be introduced that we are not already doing?” Adeosun asked.

She said: “When you go through this type of adjustment of your economy, the reforms are very painful and I think they have got to be home-grown; we have got to take responsibility for this ourselves, so that when it succeeds, Nigerians are going to say, ‘yes, we did this.’"

“I am not saying that the IMF is bad; I am just saying that right now, we do not see that need. We feel that this is a problem that Nigerians created one way or the other, and Nigerians must solve.”

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) pumped in $370 million as wholesale intervention in the interbank FOREX market.

The apex bank said the qualified bids for the United States dollars ranged from N315 to N360.

It also said that only seven banks have received allotments of their bids valued at $37,500,000 while other banks got allotments ranging from $46,512.50 to $15,578,081.51.