The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been urged to account for the utilization of the $3.35 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDR) allocated to Nigeria by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ameliorate the plight of over 130 million Nigerians living in poverty.
Acting Executive Director of African Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Comrade Leo Atakpu, in a statement in Benin City at the weekend, urged the CBN to publish details of the allocation and utilisation of the $3.35 billion SDR allocated to Nigeria by IMF and tell Nigerians how it has been utilized.
According to him, the legislature should exercise their constitutional role of oversight on the CBN and other agencies saddled with the responsibility of debt management in the country as well as speed up the process of rechannelling of SDRs through the African Development Bank for the development of social sectors like education, health and infrastructure, eves as we appreciate the approval of the framework for the rechannelling by the Fund.
“The IMF and the developed countries should consider the redistribution of IMF quota on needs basis and not on GDP, as this would help developing countries cope with the Polycrises they currently face. It is however regretable that the CBN has refused to disclose to Nigerians how the SDR was utilized as the custodian of the SDR facility,” he said.
The ANEEJ Acting Executive Director said, “The Board of Governors of IMF in August 2021 approved a general allocation of $650 billion SDRs to help boost the liquidity of member countries following the economic crisis caused by the global Covid-19 virus. African countries received about $33.8 billion while Nigeria was allocated the amount of $3.35 billion as its own share of the SDR Fund. SDRs are a component of external assets or reserve assets in the balance of payment account that are readily available to and controlled by a country’s monetary monetary authourity.”
He further disclosed that in August 2023, ANEEJ in partnership with African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), commissioned two research studies for an assessment of the utilization of the SDRs in Nigeria and Ghana as part of activities in the implementation of “Tracking Special Drawing Rights Funds and Raising Citizens Voices to End Crises in West’ supported by Open Society Foundation for West Africa (OSIWA). The reports have since been published both in Nigeria and Ghana, and used for advocacy and engagements with stakeholders at various levels.
“The report shows among others that the IMF has no clear guideline on how the SDRs should be utilized by member countries, hence, they are uese for sectors in less need of them just as the SDRs are allocated to countries in less need for them. It shows that developed nations in less need of the SDRs received much more than developing nations in dire need of the facility for development of critical sectors of their economies.
“It was also discovered that there was a dearth of knowledge around SDRs among stakeholders in Nigeria including the Executive arm, the legislature, Civil Society and Media while legislative oversight by the legislature was totally lacking.
“It is against this backdrop that ANEEJ organized a two-day international Hybrid Conference from 22nd and 23rd of November,2023 in Abuja, attended by stakeholders drawn from government, legislature, Civil Society and Media. Similarly, ANEEJ organized a two-day Capacity Building Workshop for leaders of Civil Society and Media on issues or SDRs and debt in the country where participants were equipped with knowlege of SDR in order tp ppularize the concept among the citizens and join in the advocacy for accountable and transparent utilization of SDRs in the country,” he said.
While noting that ANEEJ has also in the last nine months been involved in high level engagement with IMF, relevant government ministries, agencies and departments as well as chairmen of committees of the National Assembly on the need for open, inclusive, transparent and accountable utilization of the SDR allocated to Nigeria by IMF, Comrade Atakpu said at the just concluded African Development Bank Annual Meetings (AfBAM2024) in Nairobi Kenya.
ANEEJ in collaboration with her partners joined in the advocacy for rthe Reform of SDRs and the entire global financial architecture to help developing countries cope with their development challenges.
