and the administration has no plan to go into massive borrowing that it cannot sustain.

Adeosun spoke at a press conference marking the conclusion of the 2017 World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Washington DC, United States.


She said, “Nigeria’s debt-to-Gross Domestic Product ratio is one of the lowest actually. It is about 19 per cent. Most advanced countries have over 100 per cent. I am not saying we want to move to 100 per cent. But I’m saying we need to tolerate a little bit more debt in the short term to deliver roads, rail, and power.

“That, in itself, will generate economic activities and jobs, which will then generate revenue which will be used to pay back (the loans). It is a strategic decision that as a country we have to make.”

She added, “What I will assure you is that this government is very prudent around debt. We don’t borrow recklessly. We have no intention of bequeathing unserviceable debts to Nigerians. What we are simply trying to do is to ensure that we create enough headroom to invest in the capital projects that the country desperately needs.

“I don’t think any Nigerian will argue with us that we don’t need to invest in power. There is no Nigerian who will argue that we don’t need to do the roads. There is no Nigerian who is honest who will tell us that we don’t have 17 million units housing deficit. So, our vision for Nigeria is not for us to continue hobbling as a poor nation. That is the message I took to the meetings yesterday. We are a middle-income country. By classification, Nigeria, Angola and South Africa are middle-income countries. So, we have to benchmark ourselves against those who wish to join and to do that, we have to fix our infrastructure. We will do it jointly and as efficiently as possible. But the key is revenue.”

However, the minister said that the Ministry of Finance had rejected loan requests by some state governments to ensure the country had good debt sustainability figure.

She also said the Federal Government had a strategic plan to reduce borrowing and this was why the government had embarked on various tax mobilisation initiatives including the Voluntary Assets and Income Declaration, which she noted was gaining traction.

She also noted that plans were underway to get the National Assembly’s approval to refinance some of the naira debts into external borrowing.

On why the country had to borrow, Adeosun said, “If we think back at the problem that we faced, it will be very important to put this in context. Our principal source of revenue plummeted by up to 85 per cent. So, we had two choices: You either reduce public services massively, which would have meant massive job losses or you borrow in the short term until you can begin to generate revenue.

“As the All Progressives Congress (the ruling party), we felt laying off thousands of people was not the way to stimulate the economy. Also, when we came into office, about 27 state governments could not pay salaries. If we had allowed that situation to persist, we would have been in depression now.

“So, we took the view that as a government the best for us to do was to stimulate the demand and spend our way out of trouble. Let the state government pay salaries, make sure the Federal Government can pay salary and invest in capital projects to get people back to work. Once growth is restored, you can now begin to systematically reduce short dependence on borrowing and increase revenue.”

http://punchng.com/we-must-borrow-more-to-deliver-infrastructure-adeosun/

We must borrow cos we have eaten all the petrodollars through recurrent expenditure which includes N5,000 welfares scheme, school feeding, various subsidies, defence of Naira, paying idle workforce and yet Buhari/APC are taking us further in the same direction.

Buhari destiny is to bankrupt Nigeria

Desyner:
We must borrow cos we have eaten all the petrodollars through recurrent expenditure which includes N5,000 welfares scheme, school feeding, various subsidies, defence of Naira, paying idle workforce and yet Buhari/APC are taking us further in the same direction.

Borrowing without tangible results

All our roads are now death traps

You have been borrowing since u guys came into power & the masses get hungrier each time u borrow with nothing to show for all you have borrowed

You guys went all over the media ranting tht the country have being looted dry & we have also seen tremendous progress in the media on how you claim to have recovered looted funds.
Why not use the looted fund u claim u have recovered to run the government or is the looted fund not as much as what u guys keep posting all over the media ?

Make una kuku sell Nigeria for OLX

Achuwa1:
You guys went all over the media ranting tht the country have being looted dry & we have also seen tremendous progress in the media on how you claim to have recovered looted funds.
Why not use the looted fund u claim u have recovered to run the government or is the looted fund not as much as what u guys keep posting all over the media ?

The looted funds that have been recovered, has unfortunately been relooted

please borrow and fund N-power also



www.naijinfos.com/2017/10/what-you-need-to-know-about-2017-npower-preselection-list.html?m=1

zombieHUNTER:
Buhari destiny is to bankrupt Nigeria

You harsh ohh

Buhari has never been big on infrasture as could be seen in his first stint as military head of state where he neither initiated or completed a single capital project , a trend which he has continued till date despite borrowing a whopping 15 trillion naira in two years without the commensurate growth in capital projects or infrastructure to show for it ..Who is fool who , Buhari can borrow a trillion naira but he will not use it for capital project because he was born to destroy and not build.

Omooba77:


Borrowing without tangible results

Exactly. They only know about more money. IGR doesn't matter.

SalamRushdie:
Buhari has never been big on infrasture as could be seen in his first stint as military head of state where he neither initiated or completed a single capital project , a trend which he has continued till date despite borrowing a whopping 15 trillion Anita in two years without the commensurate growth in capital projects or infrastructure to show for it ..Who is fool who , Buhari can borrow a trillion naira but he will not use it for capital project because he was born to destroy and not build.

Dont forget the oil conquest going on in the north that has gulped close to 100 billion with no results, if those funds were channeled into restructuring the current refineries we have, our domestic consumption would have been well catered for

supersystemsnig:



Dont forget the oil conquest going on in the north that has gulped close to 100 billion with no results, if those funds were channeled into restructuring the current refineries we have, our domestic consumption would have been well catered for

Exactly

Keep borrowing to be used for re-election of the chief dullard in power
Thunder go fire una

SalamRushdie:


Exactly

Because we want to create another monopolistic market for the hausa/fulani to again monopolize, i.e. Dangote refinery, i'm an economist and monopolising markets to one region will only enslave other regions to the alpha investor. Just the same way Dangote bastardized other industries, they want us to be at his mercy with this refinery stunt, tomorrow, he wants PHCN revaluated so he can buy it, next tomorrow, he wants NLNG, why don't we see problem in all these systems? Any approval to operate in any field should be based on quota, i.e. if Nigeria wants to produce 1 million barrels a day, give a Dangote definery 20%, giveother industries this way, this way competition ensues, and codependency, market forces gives the best prices, competition ensures fair standard, job opportunities, distribution of resources and wealth...


Why are we like this in this country na? Are we born to serve as the fulani grass to feed on ?

fff

Bored

Hmmmm

But your manifesto stated clearly that your government was going to generate more IGR by diversifying our economy... I guess somebody lied

We are finished!

the madness in this administration is unfathomable.

how do you keep borrowing to build roads we don't see, rails that barely cuts across states.

what happened to recovered loots, IGR, plugging the leaks in the system to increase revenue, can't they think of revenue generating mechanisms to fund budget?

Obasanjo, Coman see the debt you toured round the world with Iweala for five years begging for forgiveness from IMF. See Bros had made a laughing stock of your efforts.

Incompetent and proud. Those are the hallmarks of this administration

By the time this useless government of Buhary & APC finish their 4-year term in 2019, Nigeria and Nigerians will regret ever voting the morons into power.


Nigeria will eventually be returned to the pre-Paris Club loan era.

Government of DEBT!

I believe very soon we will start utilising the recovered stolen loot.