However, President Tinubu recently expressed his administration’s commitment to breaking the cycle of overreliance on borrowing for public spending and the resultant burden of debt servicing it places on the management of limited government revenues.
However, the Director-General, DMO, Ms Patience Oniha, told Sunday PUNCH that the government had no plans to seek debt service suspension or restructure the debt. “You can see a lot happening in revenue. If revenue is increased, your debt service to revenue ratio will improve. So, do you need to restructure?” she queried.
The Federal Government said although it was not in a position to keep borrowing, it would still maintain its borrowing plan. She also said that Nigeria’s debt had grown since the country exited the Paris Club, adding that the key driver of the debt was the budgetary deficit.A political economist, Prof Pat Utomi, cautioned against fresh borrowings, saying, “It is not advisable to seek new loans.”
A development economist, Aliyu Ilias, told Sunday PUNCH that with the currency devaluation, the external debt burden would likely double.