Business
Adeosun backtracks, says govt will continue borrowing
In an apparent reversal of her earlier position that the Federal Government can no longer continue borrowing, the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, through an official statement from her ministry, stated that borrowing will continue in order to pursue the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).
Adeosun had said on Tuesday at the Presidential Quarterly Business Forum at the Presidential Villa in Abuja that the Federal Government “cannot borrow anymore.”
She stated that “We cannot borrow anymore, we just have to generate funds domestically enough to fund our budget, mobilize revenue to fund the necessary budget increase.”
She added that “Given the reform in the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), the country can raise the needed fund within its shores.”
But in the statement released by the Director of Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr. Salisu Na’Inna Dambatta, he said, “Nigeria will continue to borrow. Nothing has changed”.
Read also: Adeosun, Udoma on collision course over how to source $2.3bn budget deficit
According to Dambatta, the present administration’s ERGP provides for an increase in spending over a three-year period. This he said was reflected in the 2017 budget.
He added that, “In 2017, the government is committed to spending N7.44 trillion, with a projected fiscal deficit of N2.356 trillion, which will be funded by a combination of domestic and international borrowing.
“Nigeria’s debt to GDP ratio is low when compared to our contemporaries in Africa, and across most of the developed world. We have headroom to borrow and are doing so aggressively in the short to medium term in order to address our infrastructure deficit and to stimulate growth.
By Ebere Ndukwu …
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seyi jelili
July 14, 2017 at 7:31 am
No government can survive without borrowing, that I know and am sure. This one kemi is saying is just her own
JOHNSON PETER
July 14, 2017 at 7:49 am
Sure, her own indeed, mumu people, in Biafra, we shall see to no borrowing as we are producers and that will generate us revenue to run our government.
yanju omotodun
July 14, 2017 at 8:28 am
But it can be curtailed to the bearest. What we service on these debts are more than what we borrow.
Joy Madu
July 14, 2017 at 11:16 am
Most they borrow beside if not that our government don’t make use of there head our country is suppose to be the best in time of giving not borrowing
Anita Kingsley
July 14, 2017 at 8:54 am
Apparently, she was deceiving herself trying to make Nigerians feel like she’s a superheroine, incompetent fool!
Animashaun Ayodeji
July 14, 2017 at 8:56 am
Don’t blame her, she was just as confused as Nigeria’s economy. It is not possible for Nigeria, with the state of our economy, not to borrow funds to fix our rotten economy.
Abeni Adebisi
July 14, 2017 at 9:16 am
The act of borrowing is already an habit for the Nigerian government, I hope we will eventually be able to pay all the funds before all financial institutions will stop lending us money to solve our economic crisis.