DMO says FG must take loans to fund budget

The Director-General of Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, said on Monday that the Federal Government must take loans to fund the budget and capital projects.

Nigeria’s total public debt stock stands at N21.73 trillion as at the end of December 31 last year.

Oniha spoke at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Regional Economic Outlook for Africa with theme: “Domestic Revenue Mobilisation and Private Investment.”

She said with the level of reserves, oil production and population, Nigeria cannot claim to be an oil producing nation like Saudi Arabia.

“We have since realised we should not be benchmarking ourselves against these countries. We borrow because there is revenue shortfall. The National Assembly passed the budget last week and we know it was higher than what the executive presented. So, as a debt manager, what I am looking for is to see where the funding of that incremental size may come in from.”

According to the DMO chief, Federal Government would take loans to make up for that shortfall in budget.

“All of government’s borrowings were targeted at infrastructural development. Without borrowing, we won’t be able to deliver on the budget and I think we should be clear about that and a lot of that went into capital projects,” she added.