Economy on growth path as Nigeria pays off IMF’s $3.4bn COVID loan

. Finance Minister says Nigeria to exit debt soon

CYRIL MBAH, Abuja

The Finance Minister, Wale Edun has said that Nigeria recently paid off $3.4 billion borrowed from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during the Covid-19 pandemic, to enable the country to exit the list of countries that are indebted to the global lender.

Minister Wale Edun confirmed this via a text message sent to newsmen on Thursday, stating that the loan was repaid on the agreed terms.

The IMF granted Nigeria emergency assistance in April 2020 as the pandemic shut businesses around the world and countries closed their borders.

“Nigeria now has no outstanding IMF debt, though the Fund expects it to honour some additional payments of roughly $30 million a year in Special Drawing Rights charges,” IMF resident representative for Nigeria Christian Ebeke said in a separate statement.

Still, the repayment is a mark of the country’s improved financial position, with the Central Bank’s net foreign exchange reserves reaching a three-year high last month.

Nigeria has sought to improve local dollar liquidity after years of running a fixed exchange rate regime that burdened the economy of Africa’s largest oil producer with a wildly over-valued local currency.

Experts stated that President Bola Tinubu’s free-floating of the naira after taking office in 2023, as part of a broader campaign of economic reform, contributed to the currency losing more than 70% of its value against the dollar.

The IMF recently commended Nigeria’s reforms for putting the country in a better position to navigate external challenges.