1 week Ago By Eniola Olatunji
Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, says Nigeria is moving away from concessional funding to revenue mobilisation from tax and asset optimisation. Edun said this during a news conference on the outcome of Nigeria’s participation at the 2025 International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank spring meetings, held in Washington DC, the United States (U.S.
). Edun said the government has moved away from its focus on concessional funding from institutional organisations, such as the World Bank, bilateral agencies, government, the European Union, Germany, and France. Nigeria has made progress in reducing its debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Read also: IMF backs more borrowing to meet Nigeria’s short-term financial needs The consistent quarterly repayment has resulted in an 87.5 percent reduction in outstanding debt over two years. With the current repayment trend, Nigeria will eliminate its IMF debt by mid-2025, marking a significant achievement in its financial governance.
He also mentioned that there’ll be a move from commercial funding. It used to rely on borrowing money in dollars from various sources, but now it’s prioritising raising more money from within Nigeria itself (domestic revenue mobilisation). “ Raising commercial funds from Nigerians, then Nigerian diasporas saving in dollars by buying government dollar-denominated eurobonds, and then ultimately going to the eurobond market has run its course, and the focus now is on domestic revenue mobilisation,” the minister said.
He said that the philosophy and strategy of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is to crowd in the private sector to stabilise the economy. “The focus is on crowding in the private sector so that they can come in and invest across the board: infrastructure, digital, toll roads,” Edun said..
