Nigeria economic growth too slow to cut poverty – IMF says

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Wednesday Nigeria’s economy was growing too slowly to reduce poverty or joblessness and urged the government to boost revenue and scrap its system of multiple exchange rates.

“Growth is not enough,” Amine Mati, the IMF’s mission chief for Nigeria, said in an interview in Lagos as the Washington-based lender released its latest Article IV report for Africa’s biggest oil producer. “Our number-one recommendation is to get the revenue ratio up. It would increase the government’s resources and ability to spend on infrastructure. Total spending in the economy is not high enough. To ensure you get long-term investment coming in, you also need to unify the exchange rate.”

The economy is recovering from the 2014 crash in crude prices and the IMF forecasts that growth will accelerate to 2.1 percent this year from 1.9 percent in 2018. That would still leave it as one of Africa’s least buoyant economies and will be below the rate of population growth, which is about 3 percent.