Nigeria repays $3.4 billion, according to the IMF. COVID-19 financing

Nigeria has paid back $3.4 billion in emergency financing that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided five years ago to help the nation deal with the effects of the coronavirus outbreak, the international lender announced Thursday.

The largest oil exporter in Africa received funding from the IMF in April 2020 to assist it deal with the collapse of petroleum prices that had a negative impact on its finances and caused the economy to enter a recession.

As of April 30, Nigeria had “fully repaid the financial support” it got under the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument, a facility that gives member countries urgent balance of payments liquidity, according to a statement from Christian Ebeke, the IMF’s resident representative to Nigeria.

“Nigeria is expected to honour some additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about US$30 million annually,” Ebeke stated.

Nigeria spent $4.66 billion last year to service its foreign debt, of which $1.63 billion went to the IMF, according to the Debt Management Office’s most recent figures.