AS the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan winds up on Friday, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has stated that President Jonathan incurred $18.1billion debt throughout out the duration of his administration.
Contrary to a report credited to vice president-elect, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, alleging that the new All Progressives Congress (APC) government will inherit total debt stock of $ 60 billion, she said the total debt stock (domestic and external) of both federal and state governments stood at $ 63.7 billion, adding that this debt stock accumulated over a period of 40 years and not during the administration of President Jonathan.
The minister, speaking at the weekend, during an interview with the media in Abuja, stated that the $18.1 billion debt incurred by the outgoing administration was a fallout of what happened in 2010, when a 53 per cent salary increment for civil servants was carried out by the Federal Government.
She said this salary increment, which took place when she was still working with the World Bank, jerked up domestic debt from N524 billion to N1.36 trillion.
Giving a breakdown of Nigeria’s total debt stock of $ 63 billion, the minister pointed out that $9.7 billion , representing 15 per cent was external debt, while the domestic debt stood at $54.61 billion, representing 85 per sent of the total debt stock.
Of the domestic debt figure, she said $11.57billion was outstanding in 2002, while $17.3 billion was accumulated between 2005 and 2011, while $18.1 billion was accumulated between 2012 and 2015.
Apart from this, Dr Okonjo-Iweala pointed out that 20 per cent of the domestic debt stock belonged to states, while 80 per cent belonged to the Federal Government.
Dousing any tension that may arise over the country’s total debt stock, the minister said the debts were spent on critical areas of the Nigerian economy, like roads, health power, water supply, among others.
The minister, who posited that Nigeria had one of the least Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figure to debt stock in the world, said: “All the borrowings (external) were borrowed under concessionary terms with long moratorium payment and this dated back since 1960. So, no $ 60 billion is accumulated by this administration. Infact, this government retired N75 billion bond maturity for the first time in this country.
“The 53 per cent increase in salary in 2010 and government had to weather such an increment which was not there and they had to borrow to make up the salary increment. To characterise this administration leaving $ 60 billion debt is not correct.”
On the lingering fuel scarcity in the country, the minster pointed accusing fingers on the marketers whom she accused of insincerity in their demand.
According to her, there was a lot of manipulation and scam in oil marketers’ business, adding that they had been paid over N500 billion between December and now, yet marketers chose to hold the country and its citizen to ransom.
“Two weeks ago, they got paid N154 billion and they came back to say government still owes them N200 billion. They are asking for exchange differential of N159 billion and they wanted me to sign that and I said I can’t just sign away Nigerians’ money of N159 billion.
“There has been manipulation and scam in oil marketing. A committee was set up to do N159 billion verification and after we had meeting and resolved, they did the opposite. Only a few oil marketers supplied fuel and they just want to make Nigerians suffer. Nigerians should not be blackmailed, they should rise up,” she said.
Taking a cursory look at her tenure as Okonjo-Iweala stated that even though some people were bent on rubbishing her achievements in government, she had no regret serving under Jonathan-led administration.
Okonjo-Iweala, who admitted that it had not been easy for the economy in the last one year, attributed the problem to a 50 per cent cut in oil revenue worldwide.
Notwithstanding, she said a lot of achievements were recorded by the administration in the area of employment, road construction, Youwin and other areas.
Also, Dr Okonjo-Iweala has stated that contrary to recent negative statements about the economy, the Jonathan-led administration “is leaving positive economic legacies behind, which nobody can wish away, because history cannot be rewritten.”
Such legacies, she said included 1.4 million jobs created yearly out of 1.8 million jobs required as confirmed by National Bureau of Statistics and the Development Bank of Nigeria, which will make affordable loans of up to 10 years available to Nigerian businesses; the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company, which is spearheading a range of reforms which will vastly increase the number of mortgages in the country and 3600 Nigerians that were given multi-million naira grants to finance their business and the 22000 jobs direct jobs created and over 80,000 indirect jobs through YOUWIN.
The minster, fielding questions at the weekend, in Abuja, listed other President Jonathan’s legacies to include N3 billion intervention in the entertainment industry, which is improving capacity and creating jobs; Sovereign Wealth Fund that now has $1.55 billion and making strategic investments and delivering returns to the treasury.
She also said agricultural reforms that had increased food production and helped to keep inflation low, thousands of women who have been economically empowered through the GWIN programme and those with VVF, who are being rehabilitated; electronic payment platforms that have weeded out over 60,000 ghost workers from the payroll and saved the country over N200 billion and the clean up o the old pension system and creation of Pension Transition Administration Department (PTAD).
Okonjo-Iweala said it was wrong “to say the Jonathan-led administration was leaving $63 billion debt” because the country’s debt stock was accumulated over a long time by several administrations.
She said the country’s current debt went back as far back as 1960 and that it included Federal Government debt, as well as states. She also noted that before the oil price drop, the government had reduced the annual rate of borrowing.
The minister said the country’s domestic debt increased by $18 billion between 2010 and now, mainly because of the 53 per cent increase in the pay of civil and public servants.
She said the government had in fact done a good job of managing the debt profile, being the first government in the history of the country to set up a sinking fund to retire bonds that had fallen due; N75 billion worth of bonds were disposed of through this strategy.
Though Nigeria has a one of the world’s lowest debt to GDP ratio, the government has been careful in its borrowing. The government had used the right tools to manage the economy and only borrowed at very low concessionary rates to fund important infrastructural initiatives in agriculture, power, roads, health, water resources and provision of infrastructure.
She further stated that 2015 was difficult largely because of the over 50 per cent fall in oil global oil prices.
According to her, “Nigerians will remember in history that the difficulty of 2015 is because of the 50 per cent fall in oil prices.”
She pointed out that she had told the nation as far back as December 2014 that this year will be difficult and outlined austerity measures.
“All possible scenarios had been anticipated in the 2015 budget. What the world is looking at is how Nigeria has been managing the situation and their assessment is that we have done an excellent job compared the other seven countries,” she stressed with an air of finality
No comments:
Post a Comment