Cardinalstone Research looks at the financial authorities plan to cushion the adverse effects of covid-19 on the country\u2019s economy,Monday,April 6,2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier today,Monday,April 6,2020, the Federal Government (FG), through the Minister of Finance, Budget, & National Planning, <\/p>\n\n\n\n
formally announced a set of fiscal stimuli aimed at easing the medical-cum-economic burden of COVID-19 and the <\/p>\n\n\n\n
impact of oil price decline. The new measures are expected to complement previous stimulus packages announced by <\/p>\n\n\n\n
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the country\u2019s import substitution policies, which, interestingly, now <\/p>\n\n\n\n
appear to be somewhat \u201cinspired\u201d in the face of current realities.
\nNotably, the ongoing crisis has coincided with two credit ratings downgrades, with the latest being Fitch\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n
long-term credit downgrade to \u2018B\u2019 (from \u2018B+\u2019 previously) which came just before the minister\u2019s broadcast. The <\/p>\n\n\n\n
downgrades have largely been linked with suggestions that prior measures were inadequate to correct Nigeria\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n
weakening external balance position as the crisis threatens to plunge the country into a second recession in <\/p>\n\n\n\n
four years. The FG, in line with global trend, has opted to increase the scope and depth of its response to <\/p>\n\n\n\n
cushion the impact of the shocks and better position the nation for a swift rebound. The new stimulus measures <\/p>\n\n\n\n
include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Establishment of a N500 billion COVID-19 crisis intervention fund
\nThis fund is expected to draw from existing special funds and accounts, with the backing of a proposed bill in <\/p>\n\n\n\n
the legislature. The fund will be directed at improving healthcare infrastructure, supporting FG\u2019s state <\/p>\n\n\n\n
healthcare interventions, and expanding the ongoing special public works programme to the 36 states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Importantly, the pilot phase of the public works programme already commenced in 8 states early in the year. The <\/p>\n\n\n\n
programme is expected to create 1,000 jobs in each of the 774 local government areas of the country<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NCDC to drawdown outstanding $82 million REDISSE facility as FG sources more external funding
\nThe Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has access to a $90 million Regional Disease Surveillance Systems <\/p>\n\n\n\n
(REDISSE) credit facility from the World Bank but has drawn only $8 million so far. The FG is aiming to fully <\/p>\n\n\n\n
drawdown on the balance of the facility and request a fresh $100 million from REDISSE to meet COVID-19 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
emergencies in Nigeria. The government revealed it has also applied for the International Monetary Fund\u2019s <\/p>\n\n\n\n
COVID-19 Rapid Credit Facility, to drawdown the totality of Nigeria\u2019s contributions ($3.4 billion as par <\/p>\n\n\n\n
government estimates) with the World Bank Group and the IMF. FG also made it clear that this drawdown will be <\/p>\n\n\n\n
free from all conditionalities and that the country is unwilling to negotiate a formal programme with the IMF <\/p>\n\n\n\n
now or in the future. A further $1.0 billion will also be sourced from the AFDB for same purposes.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cardinalstone Research looks at the financial authorities plan to cushion the adverse effects of covid-19 on the country\u2019s economy,Monday,April 6,2020. Earlier today,Monday,April 6,2020, the Federal Government (FG), through the Minister of Finance, Budget, & National Planning, formally announced a set of fiscal stimuli aimed at easing the medical-cum-economic burden of COVID-19 and the impact of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231,"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecustomsstreetjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}