The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged President-elect Bola Tinubu to take steps to increase the country’s revenue base.
Ari Aisen, the IMF resident representative, also advised Mr Tinubu to reduce dependence on debt to fund expenditures drastically. He stated this during a virtual forum on the Nigerian debt situation.
“How do you reduce the spending needs of the government? That should be the question. It is really about fiscal discipline. People should not permanently spend beyond what they generate in revenue because it becomes unsustainable,” Mr Aisen explained. “Eventually, some people will come and ask for their money back; and some will refuse to give further loans.”
The IMF official added that the critical thing to do was for countries to rely more on their revenue to finance their expenditure, noting “that is the autonomy and the independence that we like to see our member-countries rely on.”
