FG To Commence Repayment Of $3.4bn IMF Loan From June—Finance Minister

The Federal Government will, from June this year start repaying the $3.4bn Rapid Credit Facility which it obtained from the International Monetary Fund.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, disclosed this during an interview with journalists at the sidelines of the public presentation of the 2022 budget.

The $3.4bn Rapid Credit Facility was obtained by the Federal Government from the IMF in 2020 during the period when the Corona virus pandemic led to a shutdown of the Nigerian economy

The Rapid Credit Facility was an instrument used by the IMF during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic to provide concessional financial assistance to countries that were facing urgent financial need.

The RCF was created under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust as part of a broader reform to make the IMF’s financial support more flexible and better tailored to the diverse needs of countries in times of crisis.

Specifically, the facility was given to countries where a full-fledged economic program was either not necessary because of the limited nature of the shock, or not feasible because of capacity constraints or domestic fragilities

Speaking on the loan, Ahmed said the government’s agreement with the IMF is that the facility will be repaid quarterly starting from June this year.

This implies that the loan will be fully repaid by June 2027.

According to the IMF, financing under the Rapid Credit Facility,
carries a zero interest rate, with a grace period of five years and six months and a final maturity of ten years.