Although they (the Presidency) have given the highlights of the $29.96bn borrowing, they are not detailed enough. We should be able to know how much we have recovered from those who stole our money. The loan is the highest so far. It is as if the country is not earning anything and that is not true. We are earning money from oil no matter how reduced it is. There are also some additional incomes from other sources that are non-oil sector. So, why do we have to borrow that huge amount as if we are not expecting money from other sources? I think it is not proper to borrow that kind of money for the period of two years.
Let us know how much we are expecting in the next three or five years. How do we plan to repay this loan? Loans in Nigeria have not been repaid through projects. Rather, they have been repaid from high accruals from oil. But we can no longer do that because such accruals from oil cannot be guaranteed these days.
There is the need for us to streamline all the loans we had got and the ones we want to get to know whether they are not duplicating. The coast is not clear at all about what has been done with the earlier loans obtained by the past administrations and what has been done with grants given to us by some organisations.
What are the projects that we are executing and how will they be utilised to repay this loan? I believe we are still earning money and recovering money from looters, and are expecting money that has been identified but has not been returned. If we put these together, you will find out that the loan we need is not that much.
The economy cannot be boosted through such a huge loan. The government has not stated its plans for the next 10 years. So, what are we spending the loan on? Why are they (the government) secretive about the national plan? Everybody must be able to contribute to national planning. It is surprising that we are talking about almost $30bn loan as if we are talking about N30bn. •Prof. Sheriffdeen Tella (Lecturer, Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University)
For me, it is most important that the Senate approves that external borrowing and do so as quickly as possible. The country is in a recession and for the government to jump-start the economy, it needs to spend twice of what it spends ordinarily. If you put the situation of the country into perspective, the question is that do we have the capacity to generate the required funds to run the economy? No. The economy is largely driven by oil revenue, which is down. We need to augment our finances.
Basically, the borrowing is spread over two years. So, for me, it is a right step in the right direction.
If creditors are willing to give us money and we say we need to spend heavily on infrastructure to create jobs and stimulate the economy, we should not complain about the loan. Jobs can be created by spending on the necessary infrastructural areas. By the time you build up infrastructure to support the small-scale entrepreneurs, the SMEs will create jobs that will enhance the economy.
I don’t see why we should play politics with it (borrowing). Our external borrowing, as it is today, is less than the required. The decision to borrow the money is positive and it is highly needed.
International Monetary Funds’ forecast for Nigeria in 2017 is that the economy will grow by 1.7 per cent. The borrowing is from different financial institutions, which are willing to support the Nigerian government.
The National Assembly might be right by saying they needed a more comprehensive detail on the borrowing, but I think this is not the time to play politics. It is time for everybody to join hands together to pull the economy out of recession. •Mr. Kunle Ezun (A currency analyst at Ecobank Nigeria)
In principle, there is nothing wrong with borrowing. The US is the biggest borrower in the world yet it is still creditworthy – countries are willing to lend it more money. But the Nigerian government has ever been irresponsible in borrowing. The military administrations in particular have horrible records of borrowing.
The government has listed the multilateral institutions, where they expect to get the $29.96 loan, including from Japan and China. When you borrow money, the borrowing is good to the extent that it is used for the purpose for which it is borrowed. If it is not used for the purpose, then the country has created problems for itself.
In the first instance, when the President wrote the Senate and the House of Representatives, the list of projects that will be funded with the money was not there. The minister of finance has, subsequently, come out with a list. But we don’t expect such an amount of loan with such sketchy information. The citizenry have to be briefed properly. There is no justification for the haste. The pedigree of the Nigerian government is that it is irresponsible because there are revelations of massive looting running into trillions of dollars and naira. Let us know what these projects are so that we can evaluate. •Bisi Sanda (Economic analyst, Ernst and Young)
The All Progressives Congress should just stop deceiving the whole nation. Why should Mr. President say he wants to borrow $29.96bn when his government claimed that $90bn was recovered from the former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke? Why can’t they take (money) from that one? Why should we have to go out to borrow? It is awful. It is uncalled for. It shows a country that has a deceitful government. It shows we are being deceived for a different agenda in this country.
If the government claims that it recovered such a huge sum, why should it go to the United States to borrow $1bn to dredge Lake Chad? The recession we are talking about is man-made. Nigeria has never had as much money as we have now.
Talk about Treasury Savings Account, revenues collected by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, and little amount generated from petroleum. Talk about all other agencies; talk about how much they have recovered from looters, yet our budget is just N6.4tn. We are being deceived and it is not right. We don’t have to borrow any money from anywhere.
Alhaji Moshood Salvador (Lagos State PDP Chairman)
The loan should even be more than that ($29.96bn) because of critical projects such as the second Niger Bridge and the Maiduguri-Port Harcourt rail line that need to be attended to. People who are condemning the borrowing are very wrong. Unless they don’t want the economy to come out of the recession; unless they want us to go deeper into depression, then they can argue that the loan is not necessary.
The only way to get out of the recession is the loan because what is holding us down is the decay of our infrastructure. There is poor electricity supply; there are bad roads; poor educational and health facilities and massive food importation. When a country is deficit in critical infrastructure, what it does is to borrow. It happened in the United States about a decade ago. The US went into borrowing to stimulate the economy. America is indebted to China to the tune of over $10trn.
If we borrowed the money and have electricity, the cost of production would be reduced. A company may spend N15m on running generators every month. But if there is electricity, it might spend less than N5m.
When there are rail lines, it becomes very easy for a farmer that produces kola nuts in the South West to transport his produce to the North.
It would be very easy for a farmer that produces tomatoes in the North to take them to Lagos and it would be very cheap. But if the cost of transportation is high, the price of goods would be high.
The President and the Vice-President are transparent leaders and the loan will be prudently managed.
No financial institution will be willing to borrow you money if it does not have confidence in you. Nigeria has access to Euro bonds, China EXIM Bank, Islamic Development Bank, among others. The access we have to those financial institutions is because of the trust they have in the President. •Mr. Osita Okechukwu (APC South East spokesperson)
Compiled by Afeez Hanafi
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