The International Monetary Fund, IMF, has excluded Nigeria from the list of 25 countries it granted $785 million debt relief.
Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF managing director, on Tuesday, April 14, 2020, approved immediate debt relief to the 25 of its member countries under the revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, CCRT.
“The CCRT can currently provide about $500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent $185 million pledge by the United Kingdom and $100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources,” the Fund said in a statement.
The beneficiary countries are Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Haiti. Others are Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo, and Yemen.
“Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust, CCRT, as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Georgieva said in a statement.
“This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts.
“The CCRT can currently provide about $500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent $185 million pledge by the United Kingdom and $100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources”.
“Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries.”
