By Bukola Olasanmi
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, has said Nigeria is not in any way broke.
She said Nigeria can meet its debt obligation in the short, medium and long terms.
She made the declaration while briefing the nation on her ministry’s scorecard in the past seven years in Abuja.
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“Nigeria isn’t broke. We continue to generate revenue on a monthly basis and these revenues are distributed at FAAC. We also disclose how much is distributed monthly to the three tiers of government.”
The minister indicated that even though the federal government was not earning enough, its revenue position was improving, adding that oil thefts were reducing.
“We have also witnessed a significant increase in non-oil revenue. Unfortunately, oil revenue has underperformed because of the criminality but recently the NNPC has reported that has been curtailed and we are beginning to see the pick-up with the production levels. This means more revenue will come to the government,” she said.
Ahmed indicated that the NNPC now produces about 1.3 million barrels per day as against about 800,000 it previously did.
“What we have isn’t enough to cover what we need hence the borrowings,” she said, adding that the borrowings had been practical, sustainable, and guided by a debt management strategy.
“There is a debt management board chaired by the Vice President. The debt management strategies are being followed judiciously. At 33 per cent to GDP, we are still the lowest within countries that are our comparatives,” she stated.
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“But again, I still say we have a revenue problem in spite of the increase in non-oil revenue because our performance is 8-9 percent of GDP, the revenue is not enough.
“We are a population of about 200 million who deserve service. Our consumption level is low. So we need to keep looking for ways to incentivise the business so MSMEs who are the largest contribution to labour and economy continue to grow.”