FG To Borrow N1.84trillion From Markets to Finance Budget

The Federal Government is set to borrow N1.84 trillion from external and domestic markets to fund the 2016 budget, the Director-General, Debt Management Office, DMO, Abraham Nwankwo revealed.

According to him, the government will borrow N900billion and N984 billion from the external and domestic markets to fund the budget.

Nwankwo , who spoke during a workshop on Debt sustainability and the challenge of financing economic recovery by the DMO for the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) in Abuja, at the weekend, said the challenge of infrastructural development and economic recovery are enormous; therefore, the imperative of the government to seek for alternative funding of which debt sourcing was an integral part.

He said Nigeria’s debt-to-Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio as at December last year was at 13.02 per cent, which he said was far below the peer group ratio of 56 per cent.

He said to address the huge infrastructural deficit in the country effectively, the funding implications for Nigeria is about $25 billion per annum over the next five to seven years.

To address the imbalance, he said: “The imperative is to depend on well structured, substantial, affordable, long-term external debt financing to fund the desired long-term economic change.”