Anthony Iwuoma
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, on Monday announced Federal Government’s decision to halt its plans to borrow $22.7 billion.
Speaking in Abuja at the 2020 International Conference on the Nigerian Commodities Market organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the minister explained that the suspension was “due to current realities in the global economic landscape.”
According to her, the government was no longer interested in the loan whether the National Assembly approves it or not.
She said: “The current market indices do not support any external borrowings at the moment despite that the parliament is still doing its work on the borrowing plan. One arm of the parliament has completed their work, and the other arm is still working. So, it is a process controlled entirely by the parliament itself. We are waiting.”
The global economy has been hit hard by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and for a country like Nigeria, which depends solely on oil, the effect has been huge. Even now, the price of oil has plummeted to an all-time low, hovering around $30 and thus making nonsense of government’s projected $57 per barrel in the 2020 budget.
The minister’s announcement that the government would defer the loan to a more opportune period and continue to focus its efforts on its plan to diversify the country’s economy did not come as a surprise.
Mrs. Ahmed highlighted some of the achievements of government in the areas of production and revenue and stated the imperativeness of boosting the production and exports base, noting: “The expenditures that are not critical must be deferred to a later date when things become more normal. Several national plans, programmes and projects have been directed at diversifying the production and revenue structures of the economy.