The Federal Government will not be borrowing a penny from the World Bank as initially planned, says Finance Minister Kemi Adeosun said on Tuesday.

The government will instead be be pursuing its own economic reform plan to save the economy from recession.

“For us the IMF is really a lender of last resort when you have balance of payments problem. Nigeria doesn’t have balance of payments problems per se, it has a fiscal problem,” Adeosun told CNBC in an interview.

“We are already doing as much reform as any IMF programme would impose on Nigeria,” she said. “Nigerians want to take responsibility for their future. We must have our home-grown, home-designed programme of reform.”

Adeosun said non-oil revenues were improving while the government was fine-tuning an economic reform plan needed to support an application for a loan of at least $1 billion from the World Bank. It is also seeking further funds from the African Development Bank.

“Non-oil revenue is improving very steadily. All the measures we have put in place are beginning to yield fruits,” she said, without giving numbers.

“Oil production is back up, we are very grateful for that, but we should be careful for getting excited about that.”

Recall that officials said recently that Nigeria plans to finalise its proposal to the World Bank this month.

The country needs to plug a gap in its record 7.3 trillion naira ($23.17 billion) 2017 budget, which contains a number of measures aimed at stimulating the economy.

It had initially promised to submit an economic plan to the World Bank by the end of December but did not do so.