Amid growing concerns over Nigeria’s debt profile , the Minister of Finance , Budget and Planning , Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said the dual reality of COVID- 19 pandemic and the drop in the price of oil in the international market has made it inevitable for Nigeria to keep borrowing from external bodies.
She stated that before the global health and economic challenges, Nigeria had been grappling with low revenue , noting that the crises had put the country in a difficult situation , which had made it difficult for the government to meet some of its obligations .
The minister spoke recently at a webinar organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group , Fiscal Policy Roundtable and Tax Investment and Competitiveness Policy Commission and was anchored by a tax expert, Taiwo Oyedele , who is the Fiscal Policy Partner and West Africa Tax Leader at PricewaterhouseCooper.
The minister, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Finance and Economy , Mrs Sarah Alade , said government was doing its best to make sure the revenue base was broadened and expenditure reduced . She noted that if citizens also participated by paying taxes and doing the right things , it would go a long way in solving the country ’s problems, especially raising revenues .
Meanwhile , many economists and prominent Nigerians have expressed reservations over the country ’s rising debt liabilities .
As of March, the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts , Senator Muhammad Enagi , said the country’ s total debt would have risen to about N 33tn after the Senate approved the President’ s request to take another $22. 7bn foreign loan.
But, Ahmed said , “ We ’ve had to grapple with low revenue , even before the pandemic. We had high debt, weak infrastructure base, low human capital and low revenue that is largely dependent on the foreign exchange earned from oil. So, there are many things we have loved to do that we cannot do.
“ Due to the global economic slowdown and the revenue issues, what we are expecting is a GDP that would contract , in the best case scenario, by about 4.4 per cent and in the worst case scenario, it could be about eight per cent or more.
“ We are in a very difficult situation but we are trying to manage that because if nothing is done , up to about 21 million jobs could also be affected by the impact of the pandemic . So, with all these statistics , we cannot overemphasise the importance of raising revenue .”
She said in addressing the situation , government had come up with key fiscal measures that government could not but borrow to accomplish . She identified them to include the 12- month economic sustainability plan to mitigate the effect of COVID -19 ; measures to support the private sector , which includes the implementation of the Finance Act 2020 aimed at supporting MSMEs and strategic industries affected by the pandemic .
She added, “ We also have the establishment of an N86 bn intervention fund for health infrastructure ; conversion of World Bank Regional disease surveillance system enhancement programme to support COVID- 19 intervention in the states ; accelerating infrastructural development ; preparation of a Fiscal Stimulus Bill to provide legislative backing for the fiscal stimulus packages that we have; deregulation of the price of refined petroleum products – we know how important that is, given the amount of money that we spent in that area.
“ We also have the adoption of financing plan for the power sector recovery programme ; incentivising the use of up to N2tn of pension funds for roads and housing development , supporting and encouraging states to achieve state fiscal transparency and accountability, sustainability and other World Bank programme actions in order to access external support and we are collaborating with state governments on affordable mass housing.
“ To achieve all these, we will have to keep mobilising external funding and seek debt relief. We continue to engage with the multilateral and donor agencies to access additional funding for crisis response , we seek moratorium from official partners for some of the loans that we have and support arrangement to secure commercial debt relief .
“ If the revenue had performed, then we probably will not be seeking this much support from external sources, we know we cannot but keep working at generating more revenue so that the economy can be better for it. ”
Other panellists were the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum , Dr Kayode Fayemi; Chairman, FIRS/ JTB, Muhammad Nami ; IMF ’ s Senior Resident Representative for Nigeria, Jesmin Rahman ; and the Country Director , Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Paulin Basinga .

source: https://punchng.com/why-nigeria-cant-stop-borrowing-ahmed-finance-minister/

Why not look inward? This woman isn't fit. We can harness the resources in the states to grow our economy and rely less on oil revenue.

For how long are we going to be borrowing money?
The sad truth is that the money will still be Mia-appropriated and looted!

The sad reality is that we are moving backwards

The headline should be....
Why APC can't stop borrowing

dkdmy:
For how long are we going to be borrowing money?
The sad truth is that the money will still be Mia-appropriated and looted!

The sad reality is that we are moving backwards

You no dey sleep?

Borrowing to steal abi borrowing to develop?

How will Nigeria stop borrowing when bubu and you are still in power.
Is it possible?

When you lacks sense, this is what you vomiting.It show how less sense beclouded her..

The more you look the less you see.

What happened to the looted funds, inclusive of Abacha's, that have been recovered and repatriated back so far ?

Its expected of a Govt that does not think outside the box to reduce cost and increase income..

Would you borrow your personal business to death?

Place Nigeria on OLX one time...

The actions of a govt. reveals it's priorities. Top on the present govt. bucket list is to keep borrowing, cos it gives them satisfaction to be lazy while looting. They should remember that the only job where u start from the top is when u are digging a hole, and that's what continuous borrowing does, cos it will place the country in the pit of poverty.

valentineuwakwe:
Amid growing concerns over Nigeria’s debt profile , the Minister of Finance , Budget and Planning , Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said the dual reality of COVID- 19 pandemic and the drop in the price of oil in the international market has made it inevitable for Nigeria to keep borrowing from external bodies.
She stated that before the global health and economic challenges, Nigeria had been grappling with low revenue , noting that the crises had put the country in a difficult situation , which had made it difficult for the government to meet some of its obligations .
The minister spoke recently at a webinar organised by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group , Fiscal Policy Roundtable and Tax Investment and Competitiveness Policy Commission and was anchored by a tax expert, Taiwo Oyedele , who is the Fiscal Policy Partner and West Africa Tax Leader at PricewaterhouseCooper.
The minister, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Finance and Economy , Mrs Sarah Alade , said government was doing its best to make sure the revenue base was broadened and expenditure reduced . She noted that if citizens also participated by paying taxes and doing the right things , it would go a long way in solving the country ’s problems, especially raising revenues .
Meanwhile , many economists and prominent Nigerians have expressed reservations over the country ’s rising debt liabilities .
As of March, the Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts , Senator Muhammad Enagi , said the country’ s total debt would have risen to about N 33tn after the Senate approved the President’ s request to take another $22. 7bn foreign loan.
But, Ahmed said , “ We ’ve had to grapple with low revenue , even before the pandemic. We had high debt, weak infrastructure base, low human capital and low revenue that is largely dependent on the foreign exchange earned from oil. So, there are many things we have loved to do that we cannot do.
“ Due to the global economic slowdown and the revenue issues, what we are expecting is a GDP that would contract , in the best case scenario, by about 4.4 per cent and in the worst case scenario, it could be about eight per cent or more.
“ We are in a very difficult situation but we are trying to manage that because if nothing is done , up to about 21 million jobs could also be affected by the impact of the pandemic . So, with all these statistics , we cannot overemphasise the importance of raising revenue .”
She said in addressing the situation , government had come up with key fiscal measures that government could not but borrow to accomplish . She identified them to include the 12- month economic sustainability plan to mitigate the effect of COVID -19 ; measures to support the private sector , which includes the implementation of the Finance Act 2020 aimed at supporting MSMEs and strategic industries affected by the pandemic .
She added, “ We also have the establishment of an N86 bn intervention fund for health infrastructure ; conversion of World Bank Regional disease surveillance system enhancement programme to support COVID- 19 intervention in the states ; accelerating infrastructural development ; preparation of a Fiscal Stimulus Bill to provide legislative backing for the fiscal stimulus packages that we have; deregulation of the price of refined petroleum products – we know how important that is, given the amount of money that we spent in that area.
“ We also have the adoption of financing plan for the power sector recovery programme ; incentivising the use of up to N2tn of pension funds for roads and housing development , supporting and encouraging states to achieve state fiscal transparency and accountability, sustainability and other World Bank programme actions in order to access external support and we are collaborating with state governments on affordable mass housing.
“ To achieve all these, we will have to keep mobilising external funding and seek debt relief. We continue to engage with the multilateral and donor agencies to access additional funding for crisis response , we seek moratorium from official partners for some of the loans that we have and support arrangement to secure commercial debt relief .
“ If the revenue had performed, then we probably will not be seeking this much support from external sources, we know we cannot but keep working at generating more revenue so that the economy can be better for it. ”
Other panellists were the Chairman, Nigeria Governors’ Forum , Dr Kayode Fayemi; Chairman, FIRS/ JTB, Muhammad Nami ; IMF ’ s Senior Resident Representative for Nigeria, Jesmin Rahman ; and the Country Director , Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Paulin Basinga .

source: https://punchng.com/why-nigeria-cant-stop-borrowing-ahmed-finance-minister/

I don't blame these rogues,
I rather blame the lending nations
Keep on borrowing, una go borrow una intestines one day
Stuppi pipuuu

helinues:
Place Nigeria on OLX one time...

Who would buy poverty capital?

Just imagine what the finance minister of a nation already in deep recession is saying.Still affirming that this govt is economically daft that it cant think inwards? What about all the recovered loots & staggering IGRs its claimed to have generated?

Soon this hopeless government will begin to auction its inhabitants and country to generate revenue.A govt that used 13B to feed out of school children during a pandemic? Bunch of looters, fraudsters & scammers.

It will take a lot of divine intervention for the next president to bring Nigeria out of the dark abyss incompetent Buhari and APC put Nigeria into.

Nigeria can't stop borrowing because we have an incompetent and corrupt leader at present as president.

A leader who sees leadership from the prism of nepotism. The money wasted in search of oil in the North would sustain our economy but in the face of recession, he decided to award a frivolous contract to a foreign firm to search for oil in the North. Oyibo collect the money and have no tangible thing to show.

Again the same incompetent leader have been wasting money creating nonsense program that gives room for massive looting.

- Nonsense school feeding program even when schools are in bad shape.
- Nonsense trader money.
- Nonsense NPOWER program where people collect money without doing anything.
- Nonsense poverty alleviation program.

Problem is that the beneficiaries of these program financially think the government is doing something for them. They collect the money go out and spend it at a stretch. Money is valueless in a bad economy. If economy is okay, avenue for good jobs are created.

Nigeria Universities still in bad shape
Electricity still nothing to talk about
More money taken on stamp duty
Fuel price on the increase
Our health system still messed up

Yet a leader continue to borrow.

Where is recovered Abacha loot?
Where is the money custom has been making noise they realized?
Where is the IGR they said it increased?
Where is all the money EFCC has been saying it recovered from looters?
Where is the money realized from increase in fuel price from 86.5 to 143?
Where is the money realized from stamp duty?
Where are all the money they borrow?
Where is the money donated to covid-19 locally and internationally?
Where are all the aids coming from the international donors?

Uninformed Nigerians due to their political belief have been hailing him not knowing that its the future of their generation that is mortgaged.

When the chips are down. We will know who is fooling who.

SmartProf:
The actions of a govt. reveals it's priorities. Top on the present govt. bucket list is to keep borrowing, cos it gives them satisfaction to be lazy while looting. They should remember that the only job where u start from the top is when u are digging a hole, and that's what continuous borrowing does, cos it will place the country in the pit of poverty.

Maybe they need to borrow some ideas to complement the borrowed funds. A govt that thinks magical availability of money is a reality and plans heavily against a volatile oil earning is a delusional one at best.

There's absolutely nothing like LOW REVENUE.....



The more this gov't is borrowing, the more they are regenerating from excessive taxation....Stamp duty on bank transactions to house rents and more to come....


Need I say that, we pay tax in everything, from SMS, to calls to data subscription to streaming videos to buying of clothes, to transportation..... We are paying tax everyday....


But, we are not benefiting from it....


I am beginning to wonder what this monies re used for?