The executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
will meet on Tuesday, April 28, to debate on Nigeria’s request for financial
aid.
The country has submitted a request for $3.4 billion under
the fund’s rapid financing instrument.
The IMF’s rapid financing instrument is a short-term
facility that typically bears interest.
During the just-concluded spring meetings of the IMF and
World Bank Group, Kristalina Georgieva, IMF managing director, had said aid
requests from sub-Saharan African countries would be prioritised during the
COVID-19 pandemic.
“Sub-Saharan Africa ought to be the centre of our attention
and it is. We now have more than 30 countries applying for emergency financing.
We are prioritising and rapidly responding to this request recognising how
critical this lifeline is for them,” she said.
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted global supply chains
with ripple effects in various sectors.
According to Georgieva, 102 countries have requested for aid
from the IMF and funds have been disbursed to 15 countries “in a record short
time”.
The IMF has assured members that it is ready to deploy its
full $1 trillion lending capacity to help countries through the wave of
instability caused by the pandemic.
The pandemic is said to have wiped out at least 30% of
global oil demand which led to a supply glut and a dip in crude oil prices.
As a result, Nigeria has had to revise the 2020 budget and
is now awaiting a response from the IMF, World Bank and African Development
Bank (AfDB) from which it has requested $6.9 billion.
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