A new report by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and the Open Society Initiative for West Africa has disclosed that Nigeria and 10 other Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries are currently in debt distress based on debt sustainability analysis.
The 10 other countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
The report, titled ‘Debt Management, restricting and Sustainability in ECOWAS’, was recently launched at the Debt Management Office in Abuja.
A copy of the report was obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday.
According to the report, a financial crisis in Nigeria can threaten other countries in the ECOWAS region.
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The report read in part, “According to the debt sustainability analysis, 11 ECOWAS countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo – are currently in debt distress. However, the remaining four countries – Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali and Sierra Leone – are at low risk of debt distress.
“We also find that a financial catastrophe occasioned by a debt crisis in one country may spread throughout the region. The financial woes in Nigeria, in particular, portends a serious threat to other nations in the region.”