The Federal Government should prioritize raising revenue rather than taking on more debt, according to Patience Oniha, the Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO).
Oniha stated that income growth should be increased and loans should be sought to invest in revenue-generating infrastructure to service debt during a workshop for lawmakers on Thursday.
Oniha stated that because it is harder to get a loan on the local and foreign markets, “priority should be given to earnings from oil and non-oil sources rather than borrowing.”
“Nigeria’s public debt stock has grown steadily over the previous decades and even faster in recent years,” she claims. As a result, debt service
“Nigeria’s low revenue base, compounded by dependence on crude oil, resulted in deficits over the past decades.”
Nigeria’s total debt stock was N35.46 trillion (86.57 billion dollars) at the end of Q2 2021, but closed the same period this year with N42.84 trillion ($103.31 billion), according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Oniha further disclosed that 3.6% of the nation’s total external debt, or $3.6 billion, was owed to China.
The good news is that Chinese loans are concessional, the DMO chairman remarked when describing the effects of China’s loan. It is not our main source of funding, but even though it is little, it does finance infrastructure, which is good.
Author
