Amby Uneze
30 June 2009
Owerri — Nigeria's current debt portfolio has been described as being very healthy considering the fact that as at end of May 2009, its external debt stock stood at about USD3.6 billion or a little below 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), while the domestic debt stock was about N2.48 trillion or about 2 percent, which is healthy compared to the critical threshold of about 45 percent.
Disclosing this yesterday at a two-day workshop on the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 organised by the Centre for Social Justice with the support of Ford Foundation in Owerri, Imo State, Director General
of Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, noted that it was important that the external debt accounted for about 16 percent and the domestic debt about 84 percent of the total public debt portfolio.
Nwankwo added that the major challenge was to sustain the current healthy portfolio status of the country's debt plan, stating that the challenge was all the more demanding because the Federal, as well as the State governments, were committed to providing basic infrastructure to stimulate growth and development and their funding requirements were greater than their revenues.
He maintained that the respective governments were therefore looking out for debt financing to augment revenue financing, noting that the Fiscal Responsibility Act had been introduced at a more auspicious time as its implication would ensure that borrowing by governments and their agencies for the much-needed socio-economic transformation, would follow due process and fall within established limits. The DMO DG whose paper was entitled "Sustainable Borrowing under the Fiscal responsibility Act" observed that there was nothing wrong for governments to borrow from both external and internal sources so far as such borrowings were meant to finance goods and services for the benefit of the people. While fielding questions from participants, Nwankwo underscored the fact that there was never a time Nigeria was debt-free, stressing that Nigeria only exited from Paris and London clubs.
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Dear Readers , There is a climate in America and the financial world that secretly has been
"cooking the books" while they rob us. For example most financial information that is
reported only focuses on "The Budget ". A Budget is the amount of money we would
need to run our household on a specific time schedule (e.g. weekly budget, monthly
budget, yearly budget ).
When they tell us they have a "Budget Deficit ", they are actually saying they don't have
enough money for the specific period the Budget is… [Read Full Text]
Regardless of who is making this announcement, the fact remains that within weeks of the new Central Bank Governor taking over we have gone from over $50 Billion surplus to $3.6 indebtedness. What have they done with $53.6 Billions in a matter of weeks? Is anyone still in doubt as to the evil intentions of the wicked, corrupt, Jihadist oligarchs from Northern Nigeria? How long are Nigerians prepared to stand them?
Dr Nwanko, there is nothing healthy about a debt of N3.6 billion USD so stop polluting the air with your damage control and prejudice. This is a government that despise the truth officially and waste the tax payers money on cars, illegal salaries/allowances for politicians and also spent tax payers money on official marriages. It is a government that could not provide education, electricity, water and security. So how healthy is the situation compared to your misleading utterances? There nothing nothern about this rigged government, it is more of family and friends affair than northern affair. Their family and… [Read Full Text]
ahlulbaitali, I see what you mean. Nevertheless this power hungry corrupt gang is based in the North and has dominated the political scene since "independence". Specifically, they are the Hausa/Fulani elite. They are like the dog in the manger when we think of nation building and development. They are incapable of running a country yet they do everything to prevent others who have the ability. Just look at it. It took only a few weeks to run down the surplus we built during the last administration and to go into debt. They themselves have never had any surplus. They… [Read Full Text]
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