Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and Governor Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, are in Washington DC to join other economic egg heads from around the world who are members of the IMF/World Bank Group to discuss issues affecting global economy. Discussions will be moderated International Monetary Fund IMF and the World Bank Group based in Washington DC.
The annual events christened Spring Meetings of the IMF World Bank Group will bring together central bankers, ministers of finance and development, partners, private sector executives, representatives from civil society organisations, journalists and the academia. The experts will discuss issues of global concern, including the world economic outlook, poverty eradication, economic development and aid effectiveness.
There will also be seminars, regional briefings, press conferences and many other events with focus on global economy, international development and the world’s financial system. The meetings will hold between April 16 and April 22, 2018.
Nigeria attends the meeting each year because of the quantum of investments and assistance it receives from both the IMF and the World Bank. Although Nigeria currently has zero loans with the IMF, it enjoys technical support from the organisation. The World Bank Group on the other hand is helping to fight poverty and improve living standards in the country through 33 Core Knowledge Product Reports and 29 ongoing National and Regional projects. This is in addition to about 60 Trust Funds.
The World Bank Group since 1958 supported Nigeria with loans and International Development Association (IDA) credits worth about 14.2 billion dollars. The group in 2017 fiscal year alone committed 1.51 billion dollars to the country and so far in 2018, it already spent 486 million dollars on different development projects across the country. Some of the projects include Electricity Transmission Project, Agro-Processing, Productivity Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support Project, Polio Eradication Support Project and Housing Finance Development Programme, among others.
