Minister of Finance Kemi Adeosun confirmed on CNBC on Tuesday that Nigeria does not need a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Here is the reason she gave;
“The IMF is really a lender of last resort when you have balance of payments problem. Nigeria doesn’t have balance of payments problems per se, it has a fiscal problem.”
A balance if payment problem occurs when a country lacks enough revenue or savings to pay for its imports. It can also occur if a country imports much more than it exports. Nigeria’s trade balance is currently about N800 billion, about $2 billion.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s official trade data shows Nigeria exported N5. 5 trillion against N6. 3 trillion imports. Nigeria’s exports was at an all time high of about N16.3 trillion.