Hold government accountable for SDRs allocation, group tells Nigerians

From:Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

A group under the auspices of the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), has called on Nigerians to hold their government accountable for the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocations.
The Executive Director of ANEEJ Rev. David Ugolor asserted this during a two-day national workshop on Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) organized for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) as; “Tracking Special Drawing Rights Funds and Raising Citizens Voices to end Debt Crisis in West Africa”.
He explained that the project is being implemented by the ANEEJ, in collaboration with the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, ACEP, Ghana with support from the Open Society Foundation.
Rev. Ugolor represented by the Deputy Executive Director (DED), of ANEEJ Mr. Leo Atakpu said
the country needs organized movements, Civil Society, and media that will engage the government to drive home recommendations from the research conducted to evaluate the utilization of the SDR allocation to Nigeria in 2021
He added that there is a need for CSOs to actively engage the conversation the discussions around rechannelling of SDRs from rich countries to countries that are in most need of them, including Nigeria.
“My dear colleagues and comrades, you will recall that at the peak of the Covid, Climate and Economic crisis in 2021, the Board of the International Monetary Fund approved the release of $650bn Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to help boost the liquidity of member countries.
“African countries received US$33.8 bn out of which Nigeria received $3.35bn as its share. There are concerns that the allocation of the 2021 SDR was insufficient to support post-covid economic recovery, especially for low-income countries like Nigeria.