The Director-General of the Debt Management Office (DMO), Patience Oniha, has said that until the issues of personnel, overhead and capital expenditure are properly addressed in the budget, borrowing would not stop.
Oniha further stated that the shortfall in revenue is a major reason for the consistent borrowing by the Federal and State governments.
Oniha stated this during her appearance at the ongoing engagement on the 2023 – 2025 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Policy Paper held by the House of Representatives Committee on Finance.
This is just as she confirmed that country’s total debt profile was N41.60 trillion as at March 2022.
She attributed Nigeria’s high debt profile to shortfall in revenues and the deficit in the annual budget as approved by the National Assembly.
According to her, as at December 2020, the debt stock of Nigeria which includes the federal and state governments as well as the Federal Capital Territory was N32.92 trillion, by December 2021, it was N39.556 trillion and “as at March of this year, we published quarterly, it was N41.6 trillion.
“On the average, the federal government is owing about 85 per cent of the total debt
“We have been running deficit budget for many years and each time you approve a budget with a deficit, by the time we raise money, because when you approve it is giving us a mandate, authority to borrow, it will reflect in the debt stock, so the debt stock will increase.
“Also note that states are also borrowing. So we add their own. They also have laws governing their borrowings and as debt stock increases so does debt service” she added.
