IMF, Nigeria partner on technical assistance – Okogu

Dr. Bright Okogu, the Director-General of the Budget Office of the Federation, says Nigeria has forged strong partnership with the International Monetary Fund in the area of technical assistance on macro-economic management.
Okogu disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria at the just concluded Africa Rising Conference in Maputo, Mozambique.
According to him, the IMF is structured to give policy advice with respect to macro-economic situation of countries.
He said: “They work very well with the Central Bank.
“They are not into launching child maternal projects that people will see.
“They deal more on policy with government, especially the Central Bank.
“Even with the issue of rebasing of the Gross Domestic Product, the IMF and the World Bank were very much there.
“These are some of the IMF role and our relationship with them is very strong.”
Okogu further explained that the roles of the World Bank and the IMF were different.
Explaining the role of the World Bank, Okogu said that its responsibility was the structure of international finance and development community.
He said: “Their role is to do some of the things that IMF does such as looking at the structure in economies and where opportunities are and doing what they need to do.
“But specifically, they are more interventionist in health, education, in terms of physical and intellectual investment capitals and they are doing it very well with Nigeria.”
Commenting on the benefits of the conference to the Nigerian economy, Okogu said that it would give Nigeria the opportunity to share ideas with other countries.
He added that the conference would also give the opportunity for investors to get to know things about various economies as discussions reflect on countries’ economies.
He said: “Nigeria stands to benefit from the conference in two major ways: first is sharing ideas with other people.
“You hear what others are doing.
“Just like we heard about countries next to us building ports.
“That is clearly an experience being shared there.
“Another one is that we are putting it better to this conference and the world that Nigeria, with the rebased GDP, we do have now a clearer picture of the economy and for them to know so.”
Okogu added that it was another opportunity to make investors to have a clear picture of what the Nigerian economy looked like.
Okogu said that the conference would help countries concretise policies and take policy decisions that would drive positive growth in various nations’ economies.