The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has expressed concern that Nigeria’s debt service to revenue ratio has been higher than desirable saying that the country’s total debt stock stood at $83.883 billion by June 2019.
Mohammed, who said this in Lagos on Monday during a press conference explained that the country’s debt stock was made up of $27.163 billion of external debt and $56.720 billion domestic debt, but said there is no cause for alarm yet as the country has not reached its debt ceiling of 25 per cent in total public debt stock to GDP as it is currently on 18.99 per cent.
The minister, however, noted that the public debt stock is a cumulative figure of borrowings by successive governments over many years and not appropriate to attribute the public debt stock to one administration.
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Mohammed further said the President Buhari administration’s borrowing is aimed at addressing massive infrastructural decay in various sectors of the economy.
He noted that the Buhari’s led administration is already diversifying the economy and also widening the tax base to capture more tax-paying citizens to address the high debt service.
Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja
