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General News of Friday, 2 December 2022

Source: www.vanguardngr.com

Nigeria Needs No Debt Relief – Finance Minister

Zainab Ahmed,  The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning Zainab Ahmed, The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has said Nigeria does not need to seek debt cancellation or restructuring as its debt position is within the comfortable limits.

She also said Nigeria was not broke and could meet its debt obligation in the short, medium and long terms.

She spoke in Abuja on Thursday while presenting her ministry’s scorecard for the past seven years.

Asked if Nigeria should go for debt restructuring or cancellation, she said that the option was not on the table.

“We don’t have any need to restructure, our debt management strategy is being followed closely. We provide in our budgets, provision for debt service and it’s taken as first line charge. We haven’t defaulted on any loan – local and external.

“We have projections of meeting our debts obligation in the short and medium terms.

“We’re comfortable in terms of our ability to pay our debts. So, we’re not going for any debt relief and we’re not going for any debt restructuring,” the minister said. President Muhammadu Buhari had at the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in September, sought debt cancellation for developing countries, which he said, were faced with a “debilitating chokehold on their fiscal space.”

Buhari had said, “There is a need to address the burden of unsustainable external debt by a global commitment to the expansion and extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative to countries facing fiscal and liquidity challenges as well as outright cancellation for countries facing the most severe challenges”.

According to data from the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s total public debt stock was N42.84 trillion ($103.31 billion) as of June 30. The finance minister yesterday also noted that even though the federal government was not earning enough, its revenue position was improving with oil theft now reducing.

“We’ve also witnessed a significant increase in non-oil revenue. Unfortunately, oil revenue has underperformed because of criminality but recently, the NNPC has reported that oil theft has been curtailed and we are beginning to see a pick-up in production levels. This means more revenue will come to the government,” she said.

She said the NNPC Ltd was now doing about 1.3 million barrels per day as against about 800,000 we previously did.

Ahmed, however, stressed that what the FG earned was not enough to cover its needs hence the borrowings.

She said the borrowings had been practical, sustainable and guided by a debt management strategy.