The International Monetary Fund has urged countries in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, to do more domestically to increase tax revenues and improve the quality of spending.

Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of IMF, said, “We have advocated for debt service suspension, and that has provided up to now, some $7 billion to low-income countries.

“A big chunk of this is for sub-Saharan Africa. We have provided debt relief to our most vulnerable members, so sub-Saharan African countries that fall in this category benefited from it.”

Ms Georgieva made this known in Washington D. C. on Wednesday at the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings news conference.

She also assured that the region would enjoy the fund’s support in improving governance, transparency, and accountability to their citizens.

According to her, IMF, in 2020, increased 13 times the financing, especially on an emergency basis to Africa.

She added, “We are looking for ways to reform our concessional lending programme, the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust. So we can do more concessional financing on a larger scale for longer, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.”

She noted that the IMF now had big support from the G‑20 and was optimistic it would get a new SDR allocation that would be a welcome injection for sub-Saharan African countries with depleted buffers.

However, the IMF boss called on wealthier members who might not need an injection of reserves to lend through it on highly concessional terms funding that could go to countries that needed it.

On the global front, Ms Georgieva said economic fortunes were diverging dangerously.

According to her, a small number of advanced and emerging market economies, led by the U.S. and China, are powering ahead.

She added that weaker and poorer countries were falling behind in this multi-speed recovery.

“We also face extremely high uncertainty, especially over the impact of new virus strains and potential shifts in financial conditions.

“There is the risk of further economic scarring from job losses, learning losses, bankruptcies, extreme poverty, and hunger.

“Policymakers must take the right actions now by giving everyone a fair shot, not just into people’s arms, but also in people’s lives and in vulnerable economies,” explained the IMF chief.