The Federal Government has reiterated that the country is not broke and can meet its debt obligation in the short, medium and long terms.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, said this while speaking at the 6th edition of President Muhammadu Buhari’s scorecard in Abuja, on Thursday, December 1.
According to her, “Nigeria isn’t broke. We continue to generate revenue on a monthly basis and these revenues are distributed at FAAC. We also disclose how much is distributed monthly to the three tiers of government.”
We have also witnessed a significant increase in non-oil revenue. Unfortunately, oil revenue has underperformed because of the criminality but recently the NNPC has reported that has been curtailed and we are beginning to see the pick-up with the production levels. This means more revenue will come to the government.
What we have isn’t enough to cover what we need hence the borrowings.
There is a debt management board chaired by the Vice President. The debt management strategies are being followed judiciously. At 33 per cent to GDP, we are still the lowest within countries that are our comparatives.
But again, I still say we have a revenue problem in spite of the increase in non-oil revenue because our performance 8-9 per cent of GDP, the revenue is not enough. We are a population of about 200 million who deserve service. Our consumption level is low. So we need to keep looking ways to incentivize the business so MSMEs who are the largest contribution to labour and economy continue to grow.”
