Nigeria’s debt to hit N38trn as FG seeks more loan

With more appetite for loans to execute the increasing number of abandoned road projects across the country, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, said Nigeria’s total public debts would hit N38 trillion by December next year.

Ahmed who disclosed this on Tuesday during a presentation to the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, said the current Sukuk fund for 45 roads across the six geopolitical zones in the country is N162 billion.

The minister said: “The total public debt stock comprising the external and home debts of the Federal and state governments and the Federal Capital Territory stood at N31.01trillion ($85.90 billion) as at June 30, 2020.

“It is projected, based on existing approval, to rise to N32.51 trillion by December 31, 2020 and N38.68 trillion by December 31, 2021. I am one person that feels that we should just take one major road in one geopolitical zone and finish it.

“We were not able to do that because of the processes in which appropriation is made both at the executive as well as the legislative arms of government. But truly, if we are able to just take one or two projects at a time and complete it before going to the next one, it will be better.

“What the contractor does is the bit that has been cut out for him to do in that particular area. Once the fund is released and it is finished, we stop again. That’s the consequence of these numerous projects that we put in the budget.

“You will see a road that costs N5 billion and you will see a provision for N100 million, N200 million or N300 million. Of course the project will never finish. After two years, the contractor comes back and asks for variation, and the amount keeps growing.

“I wish that we get to a point when we sit down as a government and agree that let us select a few projects, finish them in 2020, and then in 2021, we select the next.”