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LequteMan
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Nigeria - According to Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, President Goodluck Jonathan did not incur the over $60bn debt profile the country owes.
She was reacting to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo's complaints that the incoming administration will inherit a huge debt in a Thisday report.
Okonjo-Iweala pointed out that Nigeria still has one of the lowest fiscal deficits in the world with debt to GDP ratio of about 1.5 per cent of the budget.
Commenting on the $63.7 billion debt stock, the minister said $9.7 billion or 15 per cent is external while $54 billion or 85 per cent represents domestic debt. She added that the states’ share of the $9.7 billion external debt is 33 per cent while the states’ share of the $54 billion is 20 per cent.
Giving insight into the $21.8 billion debts incurred under the Jonathan government the minister said the debts were made up of $18 billion domestic component and $3.7 billion external component.
According to her between 2007 and 2011, a debt of $17.3 billion was recorded while between 2012 and 2015, the debt incurred 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.
#Nigeria #Jonathan #OkonjoIweala
She was reacting to Prof. Yemi Osinbajo's complaints that the incoming administration will inherit a huge debt in a Thisday report.
Okonjo-Iweala pointed out that Nigeria still has one of the lowest fiscal deficits in the world with debt to GDP ratio of about 1.5 per cent of the budget.
Commenting on the $63.7 billion debt stock, the minister said $9.7 billion or 15 per cent is external while $54 billion or 85 per cent represents domestic debt. She added that the states’ share of the $9.7 billion external debt is 33 per cent while the states’ share of the $54 billion is 20 per cent.
Giving insight into the $21.8 billion debts incurred under the Jonathan government the minister said the debts were made up of $18 billion domestic component and $3.7 billion external component.
According to her between 2007 and 2011, a debt of $17.3 billion was recorded while between 2012 and 2015, the debt incurred 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.
#Nigeria #Jonathan #OkonjoIweala
