COVID-19: IMF considers Nigeria’s Rapid Financing Instrument proposal

&NewLine;<p><strong> <&sol;strong><em><strong>In the wake of ravaging COVID-19 pandemic &comma; necessitating countries across continents to deploy administrative machinery to raise funds and provide stimulus to citizens&comma; Ms&period; Kristalina Georgieva&comma; Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund &lpar;IMF&rpar; issued the following statement in respect of Nigeria’s request for the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument &lpar;RFI&rpar;as made available to OpenLife <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Nigeria’s economy is being threatened by the twin shocks&NewLine;of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated sharp fall in international oil&NewLine;prices&period;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;President Buhari’s administration is taking a number of&NewLine;measures aimed at containing the spread of the virus and its impact&comma; including&NewLine;by swiftly releasing contingency funds to Nigeria’s Center for Disease Control&NewLine;and working on an economic stimulus package that will help provide relief for&NewLine;households and businesses impacted by the downturn&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;To support these efforts&comma; Nigeria’s government has&NewLine;requested financial assistance under the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument&NewLine;&lpar;RFI&rpar;&period; This emergency financing would allow the government to address&NewLine;additional and urgent balance of payments needs and support policies that would&NewLine;make it possible to direct funds for priority health expenditures and protect&NewLine;the most vulnerable people and firms&period; We are working hard to respond to this&NewLine;request so that a proposal can be considered by the IMF’s Executive Board as&NewLine;soon as possible&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;