FINANCE MINISTER SAYS NIGERIA CAN NO LONGER RELY ON BORROWING 

DRESS RELEASE

17/11/23

SHINA JO

Nigeria’s Minister of Finance Wale Edun says Nigeria is not in a good position to continue to relying on borrowings.

The Minister stated this when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance led by its Chairman, Senator Sani Musa to defend details of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework , MTEF and the Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP the executive submitted to the Senate ahead of the presentation of the 2024 budget.

Edun admitted that Nigeria’s debt servicing has reached an all time high of 98% of the country’s revenue and it will simply make a bad situation worse if the country continues to rely on borrowing.

He says Nigeria is subsisting borrowing plan from 2022 to 2026 it is yet to exhaust and that it is not the right time for more,

He pointed that it would be too expense for Nigeria to secure foreign loans at this time when international lenders and richer countries of the world ar trying to stabilize their money economy.

He however told the federal lawmakers that the way out lies in shoring up government revenue to enable the government increase its spending.

He added that at the moment, Nigeria’s government spending to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in Africa and that it needs to improve.

Edun’s remark was in response to remarks by the Chairman the Senate asking him to provide answers to issues of leakages, poor remittances and arbitrary waivers his committee had observed in the MTEF document.