By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed says Nigeria needs extra-budgetary funding for next year’s general election and population census.
The minister also said that global rating agencies were insensitive to current challenges and peculiarities of Nigeria and other developing nations in their recent downgrades of the country.
According to her, despite all the cooperation extended to the rating agencies like Fitch, Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), the rating agencies were not considerate in their assessment of the circumstances Nigeria and similar countries were operating in.
Mrs Ahmed spoke while briefing the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Mrs. Amina Mohammed who visited her in Abuja on Tuesday.
She said: “We are coping with a lot and we are doing the best we can under very difficult circumstances. But to have to cope with credit rating agencies working as if nothing has changed, not realising the kind of shocks we are suffering and coping with, and assessing us and downgrading us for factors external to us even when we are putting our best efforts, we think it is a situation we realise we can’t change.
“In this ministry, we engage every credit rating agency and provide everything it asks for. But it seems as if it is not enough. There has to be some support that we need to get.
“They themselves need to do things differently. You cannot be making the same kind of assessments they were making some time ago. Things are different.
“Things are not going well for many countries. We have seen some of our sister countries really hurt.”
The Minister called on the UN and other international bodies to save developing countries like Nigeria from the clutches of rating agencies noting that unless there are interventions at a very high international level, countries that are developing will be the ones that would carry the brunt of this attitude of the credit rating agencies.
She however, commended the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) for what it is doing with the National Population Commission (NPC) pointing out that UNFPA has embedded a special adviser that is working with the population commission.
According to her, given that President Muhammadu Buhari has issued a proclamation authorising a national census to be conducted, the country needs both funding and logistics support from UN.
“It will be very tasking on the federal government budget, we have elections and census that are very expensive so we really do need these interventions now,” Ahmed said.
On the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) accessed from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mrs. Ahmed said the money came on time as it helped the country in its recovery efforts from COVID-19, although the commitments of developed countries were very slow in coming.
“There have been commitments but not much progress in terms of realising those SDRs for the use of the benefit of our people. If the UN can put its weight behind this effort, it will be much appreciated.”
In her remarks, Mrs Mohammed cautioned the federal government on the planned review of fuel subsidy.
“Review of fuel subsidies is hugely important to the economy, however it has to be handled with care, targeting effectively what one believes is important,” Mohammed said.
She noted that it is also important “for people to understand that those perceived gains from subsidy are actually going to translate into their lives towards reducing poverty ensuring jobs for our women and youths.”
