Accumulated loans may lead to economy collapse- Expert

The Director-General of DMO, Patience Oniha, told newsmen that the agency has yet to release the March 31, 2023, debt figures.

“The March 31 figures have not been published”, she disclosed.

Speaking on Nigeria’s loans,the Chief Executive Officer of SD & D Capital Management, Mr Idakolo Gbolade decried that the outgoing government had financed its budgets through loans since 2015.

He urged the incoming government to look for ways to restructure and negotiate the Nation’s indebtedness to avoid collapse.

“The outgoing government has been financing the budget from loans since 2015 which gave rise to the unbearable loan position the country is now shouldering.

“We had continuously increased the debt stock even in the face of dwindling revenue. Major infrastructural projects executed or being executed do not have the capacity to repay the loans due to insecurity and wrong prioritisation of projects.

“Projects like the rail network are facing security challenges which have made them unable to generate adequate revenue. Other projects like roads are not commercially viable because they are not tolled.

“Investments in aviation have not also yielded enough revenue to service the loans used for its execution.

“In the face of insufficient revenue to service existing debt, the debt stock has increased to 77 trillion due to the securitization of the ways and means of the facility to the tune of N22.7 trillion.

“The debt situation in Nigeria is precarious and needs urgent intervention by the incoming government.

“The present indebtedness must be negotiated and repayment restructuring should be done to give breathing space for infrastructural development.

“The government should also look at Public Private sector initiatives on major projects as against financing mainly by additional loans”, he said