COVID-19: IMF grants immediate debt relief to 25 countries
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved immediate debt relief for 25 countries, most of them in Africa.
In a statement by Kristalina Georgieva, the Managing Director of the IMF, the international lender said it would provide $500 million in grant-based debt service relief to these countries.
“Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Georgieva said.
“This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts.
“The CCRT can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the UK and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources. Others, including China and the Netherlands, are also stepping forward with important contributions. I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries.”
The countries that will receive debt service relief today are: Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, D.R., The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen.
Wonderful why cancel all debts and start all over again cos your developed killer virus is still devastating human beings and may reach next level to clear you too and money becomes useless to human kinds. Be wise cos you are not CREATOR of this Earth.
This is a very good news because the foreign countries knows that Nigeria have the so call power to stand on its feet to fight what is take to fight. All over the world, we are known because of fraud, looting, corruption,we earned the most expensive houses in Europe, UAE, USA and held among the best of OPEC. We are the most rich nation of all the Africans and its been expected for IMF to reach us with the relief funds? This is one of the mess we are looking forward not to happen, a time to come if we didn’t fix our problem earlier, there will be a time that even the crude oil of ours will not be accepted any more because we do nothing with the income generated.