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Emefiele canvasses regional integration at IMF/World Bank meeting

By on October 11, 2015

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele on Friday at the on-going IMF/World Bank Annual meeting in Lima, Peru called for IMF’s continued support to strengthen regional integration in collaboration with other development partners.

He also challenged multilateral institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to consider the specific needs of the various African countries including Nigeria in policy framework being put in place to rebuild the momentum of global economic growth.

The CBN Governor who spoke on behalf of African central bank governors called for IMF’s continued support to strengthen regional integration in collaboration with other development partners.

He said such support, which should take care of support for revenue mobilisation and structural reforms, should be fashioned along country’s specific needs.

“It is pertinent for the Fund to support policies for revenue mobilisation and structural reforms along country specific needs. In addition, scaling up public investment to close existing infrastructure gaps is a priority and we urge the Fund to continue supporting capacity building to improve public investment efficiency and the quality of public finance statistics,” said the CBN governor.

Emefiele, who admitted that the African region had been hit by a combination of declining commodity prices, lower demand from China, the region’s largest trading partner and the tightening of global financial conditions, especially from frontier markets, said the prevailing shocks had seen a persistent near-term weakening of sub-Saharan Africa economic growth.

He explained that rebuilding policy buffers while maintaining growth-friendly policies is a priority for boosting resilience to exogenous shocks, adding that in the medium term, diversification of exports and domestic production are important in sustaining strong inclusive growth.

Making a case for the appointment of Africans to top position in the IMF, Emefiele said: “We are concerned that the 2014 diversity targets were not met particularly, the recruitment and promotion of African nationals at senior and managerial positions in the Fund.

“While we welcome the new diversity benchmarks for 2020, we note that they are short of addressing the representation of the region. We urge the Fund management to expedite action including identifying key milestones to ensure effective implementation of these targets.”

Africa’s central bank governors, according to him, wanted the IMF to make every effort to expand the pool of institutions to include universities in Africa, saying this should translate into actual hiring of African nationals.

According to him, the diversity of views and experiences will go a long way in enriching the Fund’s delivery of services to its membership.

He said efforts to strengthen capacity to drive priority structural reforms were critical in facilitating a successful implementation of the economic
diversification/transformation agenda and requested for the support of the Fund in this regard.

In the light of the increasing uncertainty in the global environment, the CBN governor said there was the need for the IMF to stand ready to deliver necessary financial assistance to member states.

He said: “We regret the protracted slow progress with the 14th General Review of Quotas and Governance Reforms noting its importance in strengthening legitimacy, credibility and the effectiveness of the Fund.

Calling for a speedy completion of the IMF 2010 reforms, Emefiele said “We remain committed to a quota-based institution, and therefore the completion of the 2010 reforms is a priority. These reforms represent a viable option to addressing the concerns of emerging markets and developing countries in terms of voice and representation.

“Against this background, we urge the IMF Executive Board to speed up work on interim steps to make meaningful progress towards the achievement of the 2010 reform agenda and look forward to the completion of the interim work by December 2015.”

 

[ThisDay]