The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has again called on the Nigerian Government to resolve the lingering issue of poor electricity supply in the country.
The fund, during a press briefing on Friday, lamented that the inefficiencies in the power sector was contributing greatly to the high cost of doing business in the country.
The Director, African Department at IMF, Abebe Selassie, while speaking on regional economic outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa described the recourse to the use of highly inefficient generators as harmful.
He said, “Again, getting power supply, getting policies to make sure that Nigeria resolves this problem once and for all, I think, is also paramount. And thirdly, macroeconomic policy calibration, things like creating deep and liquid foreign exchange markets will be important.”
“I think reforms in the energy sector are going to be paramount. The cost of doing business is very high on account of the inefficiencies in the energy sector, power supply interruptions, and the famous recourse to the use of highly inefficient and harmful generator up and down the country.”
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Selassie urged the government to finds means of generating enough revenue that would cater to the investments need in critical sectors such as health and education and for infrastructural development.
He added, “I think first and foremost is that more fiscal space needs to be created through domestic revenue mobilisation to pay for investments in health, in education, in infrastructure, which Nigeria swiftly needs.
He said, “And so, that will give strong growth outcomes this year in many cases. This is very different from saying that the fundamental drivers of growth over the medium to long term have been improved in a dramatic way, allowing stronger growth. So, that’s a point I would stress.”
