…Spending obscures Nigeria’s fiscal deficit – Analysts
…Finance minister debunks IMF claim as Senate shrugs off report
Fiscal transparency concerns have deepened after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said about two percent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product (GDP) in public spending was not properly reported.
The development has triggered criticism from analysts, pushback from the federal government and a dismissive response from the Senate, while also widening debate over how Africa’s most populous nation records, consolidates and reports its public finances.
The IMF disclosure, made by Christian Ebeke, its resident representative for Nigeria at a public event in Lagos, has been interpreted by fiscal analysts as pointing to gaps in Nigeria’s public finance reporting systems, even as the Fund stopped short of alleging illegality or off-budget spending.
“So far we think that there are about two per cent of GDP of expenditure that were not reported, that should be reported
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