Mr Wale Edun, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, has said the country cannot continue to rely on borrowing to fund its budget.
He spoke when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance to defend the the details of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP)saying Nigeria is not in a good position as regards borrowing.
The executive had submitted the documents to the Senate ahead of the presentation of the 2024 budget.
Edun, who was reacting to remarks by the Chairman of the committee, Senator Sani Musa asking him to defend the issues of leakages, poor remittances and arbitrary waivers observed by the committee, admitted that Nigeria’s debt servicing has reached an all time high of 98% of the country’s revenue. He said the situation will only get worse if the country continues to borrow.
He said the country’s subsisting borrowing plan from 2022 to 2026 is yet to exhaust, adding that it will be too expensive for Nigeria to secure more foreign loans now when international lenders and richer countries of the world are making efforts to stabilise their economies.
Edun said the way out is for Nigeria to shore up its revenue to make the government increase its spending.
