Bailout: IMF insists Equatorial Guinea's leader must declare assets first

Friday, December 27, 2019 at 10:39 AM by Jerrywright Ukwu

- Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea needs financial aid to stave off a debt crisis

- The IMF has mandated the country's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, to declare his assets first

- Mbasogo, 77, is the world’s longest-serving ruler, having been in power since 1979

The International Monetary Fund has mandated Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, to declare his assets before the nation receives more financial support, Bloomberg reports.

Mbasogo, 77, is the world’s longest-serving ruler and his country currently needs financial aid to stave off a debt crisis.

The country needs an IMF bailout to deal with a crisis that shrank its economy by a third to $13 billion last year.

Under a program agreed last week, the central African nation will be required to increase transparency, improve governance and implement reforms to fight corruption, Lisandro Abrego, the lender’s mission chief for Equatorial Guinea, said.

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Bailout: IMF insists Equatorial Guinea's leader must declare assets first — Equatorial Guinea's president is the world's longest-serving leader. Photo credit: Getty Images
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“Authorities will implement an asset-declaration regime for senior public officials as part of the program’s requirements. It’s our understanding that the law will apply to all senior government officials,” he added.

Obiang has been accused by prosecutors in the U.S. and France of squandering the tiny Central African’s vast oil wealth.

As recently as 2017, Equatorial Guinea was as rich in per-capita terms as its former colonial master Spain. Today, the tiny nation is struggling to pay its debts after oil prices collapsed in 2014.

The IMF last week gave the green light to a $280 million loan after the initial $40 million of the bailout funding provided.

Recall that the IMF recently warned that Nigeria’s debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio at 28% had increased but is still below average in the sub-Saharan Africa and Africa region.