IMF staff agree Niger's final ECF review and a new SDR 150m arrangement

International Monetary Fund staff reached a staff-level agreement with Niger on 8 October on the tenth and final review of its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and on a new 38-month ECF arrangement with access of SDR 150.02 million, about $203 million or 114 per cent of quota, according to IMF press release 26/328. Completing the review and approving the new arrangement would release SDR 26.3244 million, about $36 million.

Both steps are "subject to approval by the IMF Executive Board", and the release says a Board meeting is expected in early December 2026. The mission, led by Julia Bersch, was in Niamey from 28 September to 8 October and also completed the 2026 Article IV consultation.

The agreement means Niger would move straight from one Fund arrangement into another, with the new one larger than its quota. The country already owed the Fund SDR 377.63 million in outstanding purchases and loans at 31 March 2026 against a quota of SDR 131.6 million, according to its IMF country page, about 2.9 times quota on a Data Desk calculation from those two figures.

What the agreement requires

The release says the authorities are committed to domestic revenue mobilisation and public financial management reform, and to stronger governance, accountability, transparency and social cohesion. It gives no structural benchmarks, no dates and no targets for any of these, and it does not mention audits, public procurement, a governance diagnostic or anti-corruption measures. The authorities are continuing to clear remaining external and domestic arrears, the release says, without giving amounts.

On the outgoing arrangement, staff describe performance against the end-June 2026 targets as strong and say the current ECF helped Niger preserve macroeconomic stability, according to the release. It does not list which quantitative targets or structural benchmarks were assessed or whether any were missed.

The mission met the national director of the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), Mahaman Tahir Hamani, and the new arrangement aims to strengthen financial stability and bank lending to the private sector, according to the release. A programme supported by the World Bank is to assist micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The numbers behind the review

Staff project growth of 7 per cent in 2026 and 6.7 per cent in 2027, averaging about 6.1 per cent over the medium term on the back of agriculture, extractives and public investment, the release says. Average inflation is projected at minus 2.5 per cent in 2026 and 2.2 per cent in 2027. The fiscal deficit is put at 3.4 per cent of GDP in 2026, reflecting reconstruction after the previous year's natural disasters and support for households facing high food and fuel prices.

Higher oil prices linked to the Middle East conflict have strengthened Niger's fiscal and external balances, according to staff. The release gives no figures for public debt, oil export volumes or the arrears still outstanding.

What the record shows

The country page records 15 arrangements since Niger joined the Fund on 24 April 1963. The latest Article IV report it lists is the 2024 Article IV consultation and sixth review of the ECF, published in January 2025. The page dates the last Article IV Board consultation to 22 January 2025, which the 2026 consultation concluded by this mission would replace once the Board meets.

The figure that matters for the Board is the split between the two decisions. The SDR 26.3244 million released on completion covers the end of the old arrangement and the start of the new one together; the release does not say how much of it belongs to each, or how the remaining SDR 150.02 million of new access will be phased across the 38 months.

The next step is the Executive Board meeting expected in early December, at which the staff report for the tenth review and the new arrangement request, with its first structural benchmark table, would be considered.