CSOs demand legislative action to curb Nigeria’s rising debt profile

Worried by Nigeria’s debt stock at N44 trillion and 90 percent of government revenue devoted to servicing loans, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), and the Christian Aid are seeking urgent legislative intervention to address the issue.

CISLAC noted that after the Paris Club debt cancellation, Nigeria’s debt profile grew from $17 billion to the current $101.9 billion which it said has constrained the country’s ability to respond adequately to social and economic needs of the people.

The Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani at a press briefing in Abuja, blamed increasing dependence on private creditors for running the economy.

Rafsanjani asserted that servicing these debts has severe implications on people-focused agenda of the government.

“While the government consistently spends over 30 percent of its budget on debt servicing, allocation to the health sector has consistently declined from 5.97 percent in 2012, to 3.3 percent 2019 and 3.7 percent in 2021.

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“Similar trend played out on governments spending on education with persistent decline budgetary allocations to the sector. Government’s spending on education declined from 7.0 percent in 2018 to 5.6 percent in 2021,” the CISLAC boss said.

He reiterated that the use of significant part of government’s total revenue for public debt servicing has had serious implications on the recovery plan and other development agenda.

“We are deeply concerned with the lack of vigorous scrutiny and attention by the lawmakers in granting requests for loans without reflecting the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, and the greater implication for the economic state of the nation.

“Often times, it is not always to the interest of the people borrowing from private creditors at a very exorbitant interest rate,” he said.

He reminded the Nigerian lawmakers of their constitutional and legislative mandate to approve loan requests with only basis on public interest, tasking them to always put this clause as a prerequisite to any approvals they might want to give to the president’s requests on further borrowings.