Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, two-time minister of finance, says
Nigeria and other African countries need to quickly pressure the G7 and G20 for
debt-relief in other to deal with the economic and health issues arising from
the novel coronavirus.
Okonjo-Iweala, who was very instrumental in getting Nigeria
an $18 billion debt-relief as minister of finance, said African countries in
debt need to apply for such relief to free up resources to battle COVID-19.
According to her, if African countries get debt relief, the
monies they should pay in servicing debts — which for Nigeria is N2.72 trillion
in 2020 budget — can be channeled towards dealing with COVID-19.
In a chat with the BBC, the former managing director of the
World Bank, said Africa needs multiple sources of funds to tackle the global
pandemic and its economic effects.
“You know we have several sources, you’ve got the African
Development Bank, which has just floated a social bond for $3 billion that will
be available to the countries on the continent,” she said.
“You have the World Bank that has set aside $14 billion of
which they’ve already committed $2 billion to 25 countries — and 11 of them are
Africans. Many of our countries need to move, to take advantage of this, and
they are willing to commit $150 billion dollars over the next 15 months.
80 COUNTRIES HAVE APPLIED FOR IMF COVID-19 FUND
She said “the IMF has put forward $50 billion as an
emergency fund, and already 80 countries have applied for this, many of them
African”.
“It also has a $1 billion grant fund; catastrophe
containment and relief trust, which they can approach. Let me mention my own
organisation, GAVI, where I am chair of the board. We have made immediately
available $200 million to $300 million grant.”
“Once these monies become available, if the countries get
debt relief, that means that the monies they would have been paying to service
the debt that they’ve taken from other countries; bilateral debts or from
institutions, this monies can now be used to procure food and supplied and support
the livelihood of people in the rural and urban area.
“Government can use these resources as part of an
intervention fund to help people directly, and I think this is what they should
be looking to do. But we need to move quickly, the debt relief we haven’t got
it yet.
“There needs to be a great deal of pressure on the G7, G20
to come forward with this measure and then countries need to start availing
themselves of the already available resources, and then pressure for the debt
relief.”
OKONJO-IWEALA SECURED $18BN DEBT RELIEF FOR NIGERIA
Before 2005, Nigeria had an external debt stock of $36
billion, which had been carried over from the military years, dating back to
1985.
In October 2005, with Okonjo-Iweala as finance minister,
Nigeria, and the Paris Club announced a final agreement for debt relief worth
$18 billion after Nigeria paid $12 billion.
The deal was completed on April 21, 2006 when Nigeria made
its final payment and its books were cleared of any Paris Club debt, bringing
Nigeria’s external debt profile to just $3 billion while domestic debt was only
about N1 trillion.
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