Amidst growing criticism of the country’s debt profile, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said on Monday the regime of the President Muhammadu Buhari, alone could not be blamed for the country’s debt stock.
He said the debt stock was “a cumulative figure of borrowings by successive governments over many years”.
Speaking at a media briefing to present the Buhari government’s major achievements, Mohammed, however, said there was yet no cause for alarm over the country’s $83bn (about N25.5tn) debt.
According to him, the country still operates within its debt ceiling of 25 per cent in the total public debt stock to Gross Domestic Product.
Mohammed added, “In the face of massive infrastructural decay, no responsible government will sit by and do nothing. This administration’s borrowing, therefore, is aimed at revamping our infrastructure, including roads, bridges, railways, waterways and power, to help unleash the potential of the nation’s economy. The loans for the educational sector will contribute to the development of our human capital while the loans for the agricultural sector will help the move to diversify the economy.”
Meanwhile, the minister also stated that the Federal Government had succeeded in reducing the cost of governance and the rate of corruption in the country with the aid of the different policies put in place during the course of the year.
