Nigeria

Coronavirus: Keep receipts of your spending - IMF tells Emefiele, other central bank governors

Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 9:12 AM by Nurudeen Lawal

- The IMF has called on the governors of central banks under its watch to keep receipts of all spending pertaining to COVID-19 bailouts

- The MD of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, said the governors must be transparent with the funds they secured and accountable in their spending

- Georgieva reiterated the readiness of the IMF to help countries to steer through the depth of the recession earlier projected due to the pandemic and support their recovery

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked governors of central banks under its watch to keep receipts of all spending pertaining to COVID-19 bailouts and support funds from other stakeholders.

The managing director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva, said the governors must be transparent with the funds they secured and accountable in their spending, The Nation reports.

Georgieva who spoke at the ongoing virtual G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting of the IMF/Word Bank noted that the COVID-19 era is an exceptional time that requires exceptional actions.

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The IMF chief said the financial institution is deploying all of its resources to proactively meet the challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic and is looking to triple its concessional financing for the world’s poorest countries to over $18 billion.

“We have full support of the membership to go on the offensive to raise more capacity for concessional funding from the IMF. Our target is to triple what we do for those countries,” she said.

Georgieva said that the IMF has quickly responded to the call by the G20 to up its financial assistance to countries hit by the pandemic.

Coronavirus: Keep receipts of your spending - IMF tells Emefiele, other central bank governors — Do whatever it takes but keep the receipts - IMF tells Emefiele, other central bank governors
Source: UGC

“We doubled annual access limits for emergency financing. Over 100 countries have already approached us and by the end of this month, half of the requests will have been approved by our Board. Ten countries have already received emergency assistance.

“This Monday our Board granted immediate relief for debt service to the IMF to 25 countries. We thank members who have made generous pledges to this effort and call on others to contribute,” the IMF boss added.

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She reiterated the readiness of the IMF to help countries to steer through the depth of the recession earlier projected due to the pandemic and support their recovery.

"We are prepared to use our full toolbox and $1 trillion firepower, mindful of the need to use programmes wisely and strengthen good governance," she said.

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Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the finance minister Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed revealed the reason the IMF "excluded" Nigeria from the recently announced debt relief for 25 poor nations.

According to the minister, Nigeria has no outstanding debt obligation with the organization.

Going further, she said Nigeria has however applied for new IMF financing and this is currently under consideration.

"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).