At This Point, Nigerians Has No Choice But To Borrow” – Minister Of Finance.

Minister of finance, Kemi Adeosun , says the country at
this point, has no choice but to borrow to invest in the
Nigerian economy.
Speaking at a town hall meeting in Abuja, she said the
federal government is very conscious and conservative
about its borrowing, so as not to leave a heavy debt
burden for future generations.
She’s quoted as saying:
“We have a very conservative borrowing programme, and
we must borrow; because to do rail — the rail that we
have now was done in the colonial era — there has been
really significant upgrade,” she said.
“We have urgently to do rail to enable agriculture and
solid minerals to be competitive, so I really don’t see
that there is any option than to borrow.
“We will borrow sustainably; we would borrow
conservatively to make sure that we don’t burden future
generation.”
Adeosun however stated that the government would be
different in its approach to borrowing this time,and
would not borrow to fund recurrent expenditure. Rather,
it will be to fund infrastructural development.
“The difference is, we’ve been borrowing in the
past to pay salaries; now we borrow to invest,”
she said.
“When you borrow to invest, there is an
expectation that there will be additional revenue
that will service those borrowings.
“I think that is the clear difference. I don’t think
people should be unduly concerned about
borrowing; we have to borrow, we have no choice
but we will borrow as strictly as possible.
“This is why we have approached the World Bank
and export credit organisations that provide
concessional loans. We are taking concessional
loans before going for commercial loans.”
She said the size of the public sector is an evidence of
the failure to develop the private sector, adding that the
latter should be the major employer in the country.
Adeosun said investments must be made in
infrastructure to create an environment for the growth of
the private sector.