Washington D.C, Oct. 26, 2024 – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has denied any involvement in federal government’s petrol subsidy removal.
Abebe Selassie, the Director of African Region in the IMF, said this on Friday at the ongoing Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington DC.
He said Nigeria’s programme was a home-grown programme in which the IMF had no hands.
“Nigeria is a place we don’t have programmes. So, the work we do is the regular dialogue and other countries- Japan or the UK.
“These are deep domestic and political choices that the government has to make.
“They have made choices that we think are in the direction of making use of public resources that in the long run result in incredible economic growth.”
Abebe advised the federal government to implement social investments programmes to help cushion harsh effects of the programme.
“We recognise the significant social costs involved. The government can mitigate these by expanding social protection for the most vulnerable.
“The immediate effect of doing these changes always cause quite a lot of dislocation,” he said.
Selassie advised that government should use some savings from the fuel subsidy removal to help cushion the effects on the most vulnerable households. (GBN)
