New projections have shown that Nigeria will spend 24 per cent of its revenue in 2016 for debt servicing.
The Representative of Islamic Development Bank, IDB, in Nigeria, Abdallah Kiliaki said recently that the country pays about 75 of its debt for debt servicing.
Kiliaki was quoted to have stated during a visit to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Shehu Sani.
He said: “When talking about unsustainable debt, it means that a country or a borrower is unable to pay. So, we take very that very seriously.”
“When you look at the debt GDP ratio of Nigeria, it is very low. It is 17 per cent compared to Italy and other countries which is about 150 per cent, while that of the United States is about 100 per cent.”
“But there is a caveat; it is true that debt to GDP ratio is low but when you look at the amount, the revenue to debt servicing ratio, the amount of money that the government is collecting, the revenue of the government vis-a-vis the ratio to the total debt, I think Nigeria pays about 75 to 80 per cent of its revenue to service debt,” Kiliaki had said.
