Nigeria’s borrowing is not unreasonable, says Finance Minister, Zainab

Zainab Ahmed, the Minister of Finance has stated that Nigeria cannot make progress if it doesn’t borrow to fund the building of its infrastructure.

This statement was made by the Minister of Finance at a media briefing at the statehouse Abuja on Thursday February 25.

The finance minister said this while reacting to criticism regarding high levels of borrowing by this administration.

In her words;

”The level of borrowing is not unreasonable. It is not high. If we say we will not borrow and therefore we will not build rails and major infrastructure until our revenue rises enough, we will regress as a country. We will be left behind. We wouldn’t be able to improve our business environment and our economy will not grow.

We just need to make sure that when we borrow, we apply the borrowing to specific major infrastructure that would enhance the business environment in this country”

The total borrowing of Nigeria as of December 31, 2020 is nearly 25% of the GDP.