Nigeria’s economy need substantial expenditure to grow fast, tackle debt – Kale

Yemi Kale, partner and chief economist at KPMG Nigeria has said Nigeria’s economy needs substantial expenditure.

He said in a tweet on Monday that if Nigeria spends only what we earn like we used to do 10 to 15 years ago then the country won’t really move forward fast.

He noted that Nigeria pushed much needed spending recently.

“But we haven’t been able to match our expenditure energy with our revenue growth energy so debt,” he tweeted.

Economy needs substantial expenditure.If we spend only what we earn like we used to do 10/15yrs ago we won’t really move forward fast . So we pushed much needed spending recently. But we haven’t been able to match our expenditure energy with our revenue growth energy so debt.

— Dr Yemi Kale (@sgyemikale) April 24, 2023

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Kale cited an example of when Nigeria budgets N10 trillion in revenue, plans to spend N15 trillion and plug the gap with N5 trillion debt but revenues come in at N4 trillion.

Read also: Buhari’s N22.7trn debt conversion plan stuck in limbo

“Nigeria now has to go to CBN for ways and means advance of N4 trillion to plug the budget hole then repeat in the next budget cycle and the hole gets bigger,” he tweeted.

“Imagine if we increased our revenue to GDP to just 10%. Getting just 10% of our N200t GDP is about N20t. Try 15% and that’s N35t in revenues. Suddenly our debt doesn’t look so troubling. So the revenue to pay does exist but we are pretty poor at getting it out.”