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Reps Express Alarm over Nigeria’s $25 billion Projected Debt Profile

By on October 3, 2012

Lawmakers at the National Assembly

Members of the House Committee on Legislative Budget and Research have expressed alarm at the present and projected levels of borrowing by Federal, State and Local governments.

The level of borrowing was disclosed when the Director General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Abraham Nwankwo, appeared before the lawmakers  to discuss the 2013-2015 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy (MTEF).

Nwankwo disclosed that external debt this year was $9 billion, and is projected to reach $12.1 billion in 2013, $14.5 billion in 2014, and $16.7 billion in 2015.

Local debt projections were given by the Debt Manager as $6.48 billion in 2012, $7.1 billion in 2013, $7.7 billion in 2014, and $8.4 billion in 2015.

The Chairman of the House Committee, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, expressed concern that the government was crowding out the private sector from having access to funds a the bank were lending to government virtually exclusively.

He said, “We are aggressively borrowing in such a manner that the private sector is being stifled as the government is now the only big spender in the economy.

“The private sector cannot access funds domestically, they cannot create jobs.”

Other members of the committee said there was no visual evidence of how Nigeria was spending the money it borrowed.