Federal Government Of Nigeria Plans To Borrow More Money

The Nigerian Federal Government has decided in its infinite wisdom to push it's public debt stock to ₦50.22 trillion by 2023, with domestic debt at ₦28.75 trillion and external debt at ₦21.47 trillion.

The Debt Management Office (DMO) had disclosed that Nigeria’s public debt was somewhere around ₦38 trillion as of the end of the third quarter of 2021, with the total debt stock rising by ₦2.540 trillion in three months from July to September 2021.

This shows that the President Muhammadu Buhari and his cabinet members are planning to accumulate a debt of ₦12 trillion within two years from 2021 to 2023.

Truly speaking, the rate at which the Nigerian government is borrowing is very worrisome and the debt level is rising fast. The government should find other ways to generate revenue and stop resorting to heavy borrowing.

Professor of Economics at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella said, "Even at the level that we are now, it is worrying, not to talk of planning to borrow more. It is unfortunate that the government is always thinking of borrowing, instead of thinking of other ways to generate revenue."

He also said that even though this borrowing of money was to do some projects, there is a way they could be scaled down until there is enough funds to implement them, and there are other projects that can generate money on their own.

Instead of always thinking about borrowing, the government should collect the money owed to the country. For instance now, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) recently detected some money that is being held by some wealthy individuals, money that runs into trillions of naira but the government has ignored this and refused to go after those funds.

A former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu also made a statement criticizing the rising debt level in the country, saying that the government was being irresponsible.

He said, "I condemn the borrowing plan. I think the Federal Government of Nigeria has been borrowing irresponsibly and mortgaging the future of the youth of Nigeria. This should stop, the damage will be very difficult to repair. There is no need for Nigeria to be borrowing at the rate it is borrowing."

It has become apparent to all that the Nigerian government has become reckless in borrowing.

Though I believe we have enough resources to pay the debt. Nigeria was blessed with about 70% of the world's total resources that's why china is happily giving out the money to the irresponsible government. Maybe they have this silly mindset that they can take something really valuable in return. Maybe some acres of land that will continuously produce crude oil or those with Uranium so they can use it to create bomb or perhaps sell it to the United Nations. With the way the government and buhari is going, the new president will now be responsible for the repayment of the debt. It all depends on if he's another irresponsible human that'll borrow more or someone a little bit better that will actually try to repay the loan.

A little while back a rumor was spreading that the Central Bank Of Nigeria was planning to debit the amount of ₦5,000 from everyone's account in other to repay the loan. Now all we see is this president looking forward to borrow more instead of trying to repay the loan.

The question on everyone's mind is, how will we be able to pay this debt back as a nation, well only time will tell. We can only hope for the best.

Don't forget to leave a like and subscribe for more of this content. Please do share your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below.

Thank you for reading.

Happy New Year in advance.