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By Emma Ujah
Friday, July 30, 2004
ABUJA — The Managing Director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund, Mr Rodrigo de Rato, will arrive Abuja on Monday to discuss fiscal federalism, fiscal discipline, transparency in public expenditure among others socio-economic issues.
The fund’s Senior Resident Representative in Nigeria, Mr. Idrissa Thiam, told journalists in Abuja yesterday that the MD who will be visiting Africa for the first time since assumption of office will in addition to Nigeria, pay a working visit to Gabon and Uganda.
Mr. Thiam who commended the Federal Government for crafting the NEEDS policy and the result so far achieved, said that the IMF believed that policy framework must be driven down to the grassroots for the overall targets to be achieved.
“The MD will discuss the federal nature of Nigeria and its implications for fiscal policy. The Federal Government takes about 48 per cent of the nation’s federally generated revenue. The states and of course the local councils take the rest.
“The implication is that whatever policies and strategies the Federal Government puts in place towards achieving transparency, openness and fiscal discipline without corresponding policy measures at the lower levels can hardly yield the expected results.
“Perhaps this makes the meeting of Mr de Rato with some governors, members of the
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