The IMF Managing Director, Christine Lagarde, made the announcement on Thursday during the ongoing IMF/ World Bank 2016 General Meeting in Washington D.C.
THE WHISTLER recalls that the President Muhammdu Buhari-led government had announced, during a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, its intention to borrow externally from international organisations as part of its efforts to retract the economy from the scourge of recession.
The disclosure made by Lagarde may be the best opportunity the Buhari administration has to strike, so as to get multilateral lending at the said zero interest rate.
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“I am pleased to note that our board has approved zero interest rates on all fund concessional facilities until 2018, the IMF boss said during the meeting.
“This is really important for low-income countries to be able to actually absorb the shocks (of borrowing) without necessarily going to the international markets or relying on bilateral lending that can be far expensive,’’ she said.
With specific regards to Africa, the IMF Chief noted that the organisation has special interest for infrastructure and education.
“With 1.6 per cent overall growth for sub-Saharan Africa, we really are going to develop our technical assistance, our training, our help in building capacity in addition to financing infrastructure, there is also the cap,’’ she added.