The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Friday revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari brought Nigeria out of recession on two occasions through borrowing and piling of more debts. The Minister during a Breakdown of the 2022 Appropriation Bill in Abuja on Friday justified why the Federal Government should incur more debts, saying that the debts were instrumental to Nigeria’s exit from recessions.
According to Zainab Ahmed: “Having witnessed two consecutive recessions, we have had to spend our way out of recession which contributed significantly to the growth of our public debts.
“It is unlikely that our recovery from these recessions would have been as fast without the sustained government expenditure funded partly by debt.”
The minister had earlier revealed that the All Progressives Congress (APC) government will fund the 2022 budget deficit of N6.258 trillion with fresh borrowings, indicating increasing Nigeria’s debt profile.
She stated: “Borrowings are essential to enable us to deploy necessary capital expenditure and invest in human capital development.”
The minister maintained: “To compound matters, the country has technically been at war, with the pervasive security challenges across the nation.
“This has necessitated massive expenditures on security equipment and operations, contributing to the fiscal deficit; Defence and Security sector accounts for 22% of the 2022 budget!”
She said that the “debt level of the Federal Government is still within sustainable limits”.