There are strong indications that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will release up to $99 billion to 70 emerging and developing economies to manage issues relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the report by The Nation, Nigeria and other 69 countries are to benefit from the intervention fund.
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Since the onset of the #COVID19 pandemic, 70 countries have received financial support from the IMF under emergency financing facilities created to provide speedy support to countries hit by shocks. #IMFBlog https://t.co/LPGrR7sfmg pic.twitter.com/5xkbmu6kaY
— IMF (@IMFNews) November 16, 2020
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Already, the IMF had advanced the sum of $29 billion under the Rapid Credit Facility and Rapid Financing instrument, out of which Nigeria got the sum of $3.4 billion to enable it to strengthen both its balance of payment and local currency.
Other countries also received their own funds through different channels and arrangements to the tune of over $70bn, totaling $99bn from the Fund.
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According to the report, there are no traditional IMF conditionality attached to the funding, as well as no phasing of disbursements over time. Therefore, it is incumbent on the beneficiary countries to determine their utilizations of the funds, as they undertake on how to tackle or address their peculiar circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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What you should know
- Since the onset of the pandemic, IMF has swiftly responded and provided relief or intervention funds to more than one-third of its membership.
- With the imminent recession for most countries in Africa, the IMF has continued to support many of the member countries to pull them out of the financial quagmire – to reposition their economies
- Many African countries like Ghana, Gabon, and South Africa, etc. are still seeking for the assistance of the IMF to fight the pandemic in their countries.
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization, consisting of 190 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment, and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
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