"I am not here to negotiate loans"-IMF Chief fires back

The IMF chief said her visit to Nigeria has nothing to do with loans’ negotiation for the Federal Government. Ms. Lagarde, who arrived in the country on Monday for a four-day visit, made the clarification while speaking with State House reporters after holding a closed-door parley with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. According to her, the visit is to review the Nigeria economy and its impact on neighbouring countries. Such review, she explained, is one of the three major functions of the IMF. Her words: “First, let me make it clear that I’m not here, nor is my team in this country, to negotiate a loan with conditionalities. We are not into programme negotiations. And frankly, at this point in time, given the determination and resilience displayed by the President and his team, I don’t see why an IMF programme will be needed. “Of course, discipline is going to be needed. So, implementation is going to be key for the objectives and the ambitions to serve the country well, in order for it to be actually sustainable. “On the current account upfront, we believe that with very clear primary ambition to support the poor people of Nigeria, there could be added flexibility in the monetary policy, particularly if, as we think, the price of oil is likely to be possibly low for longer, because clearly the authorities should not deplete the reserves of the country, simply because of rules that will be exceedingly rigid. I’m not suggesting that rigidity be totally removed but some degree of flexibility will be enough.” Ms. Lagarde also debunked beliefs in some quarters that IMF’s policies are not pro-people and against the poor. She said: “Certainly, the last four and a half years, since I have been Managing Director of this institution, this is not the recipes we adopted and this is certainly not the feedback I have received from the countries that we have worked with. “I just want to point out that we are majorly involved in three kinds of activities. The first one, which is the most traditional one, is under which we give policy advice to our members. We have currently 188 countries that are under this institution and it is our duty and accountability to them to review their economy every year to give them report about their economy. We don’t push them. We don’t do things necessarily to please them. We say things as we see them. Culled from: 247nigeriannewsupdate.com