Nigeria wasted oil boom opportunities - IMF

28.02.2008

The President of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Khan, on Wednesday stated that Nigeria had not taken good advantage of the excess revenue which accrued to it through the oil boom in recent times.

He, however, noted that the country had made successful reforms which must be preserved.

Strauss-Khan, speaking at a workshop on revenue mobilisation for African government officials in Abuja, warned that the question of fiscal responsibility was at stake and advised the government to spend the oil money responsibly.

The IMF boss said Nigeria, the eighth-biggest exporter of crude oil in the world, shared a challenge facing several resource-rich African countries - that of finding the right fiscal response to an increase in revenues.

"Nigeria is a very good example. Fiscal policy has been well-managed in the past years but Nigeria has also missed some opportunities with the oil boom," he stressed.

He was apparently referring to Nigeria's economic reform programme, launched in 2003, which has improved macro-economic stability but has yet to make much headway in fixing the collapsed infrastructure or reducing poverty.

A political argument is raging at the moment over the previous administration's spending on the power sector, which wasput at between $10 billion and $16 billion according to different government sources.