Nigeria Is Not Broke — Finance Minister
The Federal government has noted that Nigeria is not broke as the nation has not in any way defaulted in both domestic and foreign debt repayments.
The minister of Finance and National Budget, Zainab Ahmed stated this at the Scorecard of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration series (2015-2023), yesterday in Abuja.
The minister noted that the federal government’s total revenue was N1.63 trillion, while debt service gulped N1.94 trillion.
She however noted that measures have been put in place for the nation’s economy to survive the current global economic shocks occasioned by the war in Ukraine and rising inflation.
“Nigeria isn’t broke. We continue to generate revenue on a monthly basis and these revenues are distributed at FAAC. We also disclose how much is distributed monthly to the three tiers of government”, she said.
She further noted that even though the federal government was not earning enough, its revenue position was improving.
“We have also witnessed a significant increase in non-oil revenue. Unfortunately, oil revenue has underperformed because of the criminality but recently the NNPC has reported that has been curtailed and we are beginning to see the pick-up with the production levels. This means more revenue will come to the government.
“Although the Buhari administration has been criticized for copious borrowings believed to have sapped the country’s coffers dry, she said that urgent action is ongoing to address “revenue underperformance and expenditure efficiency at national and sub-national levels”, she added.