The Chairman of United Bank for Africa Plc, (UBA) and Heir Holdings, Mr. Tony Elumelu on Friday charged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other development partners to provide alternative sources of raising funds for Nigeria if Chinese loans are not in the best interest of the country.
Elumelu, who gave the charge while interacting with State House journalists shortly after visiting President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, said that his Foundation will continue to support the government and the people through the $5,000 grant, so as to create a more prosperous society.
Reacting to the warning by the IMF to Nigeria on the need for the country to be cautious in taking loans from China, the African leading entrepreneur and youth capacity building promoter, said that whoever was opposed to taking loan from China should provide alternative source of funding for Nigeria.
Specifically, expressing his views on the IMF warning, Elumelu said: “My position is that nature abhors vacuum, if you do not want Nigeria to take China loan, provide the alternative. Like I keep saying, they should also support the development of entrepreneurs, they should look at ways to help us eradicate poverty in a manner that is sustainable.
“For me, one of the surest way to eradicate poverty is to ensure that our youths are gainfully employed through entrepreneurship. Also to make sure that development agencies – IMF, World Bank and co help and support Nigeria to improve on her infrastructure, road transportation, access to electricity.
“These are things that will help us improve on security in Nigeria, these are things that will help us increase prosperity through employment which is the most important thing. So, the advise is good but nature abhors vacuum”, the banking expert added.
Speaking on what the Buhari administration should focus on to make the ‘Next Level’ of governance achieve its objectives, Elumelu advised the government to be focused on ongoing programmes in order to improve on them and increase productive capacity in all critical sectors of the economy.
He expatiated: “On the economy and the next level, let us just continue in what we are doing, improve on them, increase capacity. I operate in the power sector, we are the biggest generator of electricity in Nigeria through Transcorp power and I know first-hand what efforts government is doing.
“But we need to do more, we need to convert gas to power, we need to compliment what is going on already in agric space and as you know there is peace and prosperity in that sector but we need to add a little zeal to it to be able to attract investors. “I think the elections are over and we need to move forward as a team, as a country so that our people will be better for it.”
It would be recalled that the IMF had on Wednesday cautioned Nigeria and other developing countries from taking loans from China due to what it termed the country’s unfavourable loan conditions.
A senior official of the Fund, Mr Tobias Adrian, gave the advice during the launch of the Global Financial Stability Report for April, 2019 at the IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington D.C, U.S.
He said: “Capital flows, which include capital flows from China are of course important for development. On the other hand, what is very important in lending arrangements are the terms of the loans and we urge countries to make sure that when they borrow from abroad the terms are favourable.
“In particular, we recommend that loans to countries should conform with Paris Club arrangements and that is not always the case of loans from China”, Tobias added.
