Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has refuted
claims by VP-elect Yemi Osinbajo that the outgoing administration owes
$60billion in local and foreign debts.
Speaking with finance correspondents, Okonjo-Iweala said
that the nation’s current debt stock stands at $63.7 billion and it encompasses
domestic and multilateral loans by all the federal and state governments since
1960. She said various states of the federation accounted for 20% of the
nation’s total debt stock.
Of the $63.7 billion debt, the minister said $9.7 billion or
15% is external while $54 billion or 85 per cent represents domestic debt. She
said between 2007 and 2011, a debt of $17.3 billion debt was recorded while
between 2012 and 2015, the debt stood at $18.1 billion.
She explained that the leap in the debt profile between 2012
and 2015 was triggered off by the 53 per cent wage increase implemented by the
late Umaru Yar’Adua administration in a fell swoop.
This, she said, skyrocketed government’s borrowing from N524
billion to over N1 trillion in order to meet the salary increase, adding that
the country’s domestic debt increased by $18.1 billion mainly because of the 53
per cent increase in the pay of civil and public servants.
The minister stated that at the time of the salary increase,
she was still with the World Bank, adding that she had written and warned on
the consequences of acquiescing to such a huge increase.
Absolving the Jonathan administration of blame, the minister
said the government had in deed taken a careful and meticulous approach to
managing the nation’s debt, noting that the present administration, for the
first time in the nation’s history, retired a domestic debt of N75 billion in
2013.
Source: Thisday
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