Don't strangulate poor Nigerians, IMF tells Buhari

Following the sharp fall in government revenues occasioned by dwindling oil prices, the Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde has cautioned President Muhammadu Buhari against implementing rigid economic policies capable of strangulating poor Nigerians.

She expressed her concern for the large number of poor Nigerians, stressing the need for flexibility in implementing fiscal policies.

“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 but that rigidity be totally removed but some degree of flexibility will be enough," she said. 

She added that she would be meeting with the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Minister of Finance to discuss the issue of flexibility in fiscal policies as they affect poor Nigerians. 

"I am going to have more discussions with the finance minister, with Governor of Central Bank. We will be discussing issue of fiscal discipline, financing monetary policies and the degree of flexibility, all that with the fact that Nigeria with a vibrant large economy still has to deal with poor people, a lot of inequality and those two components should certainly be the drivers of reforms, whether it is looking at subsidies and how they are structured and how they can be phased out, whether it is monetary policy and the flexibility needed and knowing what effect it has on the poor, all, of those are ambitions that we could quickly recognize and support,” she added.