We Are NOT Sick, Nigeria Don't Need IMF Loans - Kemi Adeosun

Kemi Adeosun has said that the country don't need the demanded IMF loans .

The Managing Director of International Monetary
Fund (IMF) Christine Legarde says the state of
Nigeria’s economy is critical and requires
proactive monetary, fiscal and structural policies
to put it on the path of growth.
The IMF position during a media conference at
the IMF WD spring meetings attracted the
reaction of Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Kemi
Adeosun.
The Minister, said Nigeria will overcome its
economic challenges without taking loan facility
from the IMF.
She disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja
on Saturday. Adeosun made the observation at
the ongoing Spring Meetings of the IMF-World
Bank in Washington DC in response to why the
government has refused to apply for IMF loans.
The statement quoted the minister as saying
that Nigeria was adapting to its new realities by
implementing fiscal policies to steer the country
back on track for stable growth with a diversified
economy.
Signed by the Special Adviser to the Minister on
Media, Mr Festus Akanbi, the statement said the
minister expressed optimism that sound fiscal
policies and investments would boost Nigeria’s
economy by 2017.
Adeosun insisted that what the country was
passing through was surmountable because
government was already applying a “cocktail of
measures to address the problem.
“Nigeria is not sick. The real vulnerability in the
Nigerian economy is over-dependence on a
single source of revenue; oil.
“We have resolved to build resilience into the
country’s economy to hedge against future oil
shocks. This is because dependence on oil
brings about vulnerability and laziness.
“So, we are doing a combination of things to
diversify our economy, with revenue mobilisation
to enable sufficient investment in developing the
non-oil sectors.
“We have great opportunities to reset the
Nigerian economy and ensure that as we go
forward, growth will be in a sustainable manner
so that we won’t be vulnerable to oil price
fluctuations.’’
Adeosun said with a truly diversified economy
the government would have enabled
opportunities for wealth creation that would have
flow down to every Nigerian.
She said that the compelling business case in
Nigeria is that the fundamentals remain very
strong, a teaming, young growing population, rich
in resources and that the government of the day
is determined to finally get it right.
She added that the long term investors recognise
this and understand the difference between short
term and long term issues and that the case for
Nigeria persuades one to plan for the longer term
opportunities