Babatunde Fashola, minister of
works and housing, says Nigeria can not afford to ignore “life-sustaining”
infrastructure amid concerns for high debt profile.
Fashola said this on Tuesday when
he appeared before the house of representatives joint committee on rules and
debt management to defend President Muhammadu Buhari’s loan request of $22.7
billion.
The president recently wrote the
national assembly to approve the request — contained in the federal
government’s 2016-2018 external borrowing plan — after it was rejected in the
previous assembly.
Buhari had sent a loan request of
N29.96 trillion in 2016, but only few projects were approved, leaving the
balance at N22.7 billion, according to documents seen by TheCable.
Addressing the lawmakers, Fashola
said while concerns for high debt profile are legitimate, every Nigerian wants
basic infrastructure such as roads and rail projects.
“As we cannot ignore those
concerns about debt, so we cannot ignore the concerns and the demand for the
provisions of life-sustaining infrastructure,” he said.
“So, everybody wants a road.
Everybody wants a rail project, everybody wants a bespoke and efficient
airports.
“We want to ensure that our ports
are efficient so that businesses can function more effectively, so that
clearing of goods can happen more quickly and cheaply.
“And we are in the midst of these
fiscal challenges that she has identified; that the revenues are not just
enough to provide all of those needs.”
He said despite the challenge of
low revenue, the current administration has committed to addressing “as much of
the infrastructure needs as we can accommodate.”
“We are in a place where the
choices before us are whether to stop or to continue. If we decide to continue,
we must find a way to finance this assets to closure,” he added.
As of June, Nigeria’s total
public debt profile was estimated at
N25.7 trillion.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
Make APC kukuma sell Nigeria as una like, make una pocket am, una hear? APC Congratulations on your new debt
ReplyDelete