The Presidency has faulted the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over what it described as a “very fatalistic” assessment of Nigeria’s economic reforms, inflation, and poverty levels.
The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Economic Affairs, Tope Fasua, criticised the IMF’s recent article titled “How Nigeria Can Unleash Its Economic Potential,” which raised concerns over the country’s persistently high inflation rate and slow impact of reforms.
“This administration under President Tinubu has done some of the deepest reforms that we have seen in a while. We only just got the tax bills signed into law—bills that offer relief to low-income earners and double the tax threshold for small businesses,” he said on Tuesday’s edition of Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.
“We haven’t even allowed those measures to settle, yet we’re hearing all sorts of very fatalistic statements from different places, including, unfortunately, the IMF,” Fasua said.
The special adviser said the IMF had become overly critical, describing its frequent statements on Nigeria as “heckling” and potentially destabilising.
“Sometimes one wants to think they go into overdrive—almost every week or every two to three days, there’s a statement on Nigeria. At the end of the day, it leaves everyone in a state of confusion,” he said.
He disclosed that Nigeria recently repaid $3 billion to the IMF to exit its COVID-19 loan package—something many other countries have yet to do—yet the Fund continues to pile pressure on the country.
“We’re not asking for a pat on the back; we’re just saying, you know what, give us a breather. Let us be able to implement the policies we’ve started. They acknowledge that the reforms are good, yet they keep demanding more, and it’s almost like being caught between the devil and the deep blue sea,” he added.
Credit: channelstv.com
